An Angelic Discovery
by Sweet Charity
Summary: 3 years after Manticore is destroyed, a teenage girl comes to the light. Because of Manticore's wacked family values, Alec and Max are forced together. Something that is normally celebrated as a blessing slowly changes Max's outlook on everything.
1. Prequel

Disclaimer: If I owned Dark Angel, I would be swimming in Benjamins. But alas, I am a lowly ff.net writer, and I own a couple of numbers and names. Plot idea is mine, too.

****Prequel****

  Vada did not like the uniform.

  It was so, plaid.

  But she was supposed to be here. She was on a mission.

  But this time, it wasn't from Manticore. She was trying to find him. X6 528.

  Naturally, she had found him annoying. But he was the key to her survival. She read it somewhere. She had found a financial source for the time being- A foster family like his, rich and basically needing someone for the debutante ball.

  Sure, she was fourteen. But with her intelligence and outer appearance, nobody would doubt that she was sixteen.

  And with all the confidence the best genetics had given her, Vada was still very nervous.

  Word about her arrival spread through the walls of Canterbury Prep like a virus. Those exact words from the mouth of one of his jock friends told Tristan that she was back.

  She hadn't exactly been in his unit. But he knew who she was. She had attitude and a cocky sort of confidence. The staff and Lydecker loved her. She was the ideal.

  Until she had escaped.

  She had escaped a year before he had. He had made it out when Manticore exploded. He was sure she had heard about that. But no need to explain, he knew that the Virus was back.

  Tristan had done fairly well. Now he was masquerading as the blonde James Dean of Canterbury Prep, the senior. Sure, he was only sixteen. But nobody knew the difference.

  He had a new last name. Tristan St. Clair. It was the first time he had ever had a last name. He belonged to the prominent St. Clairs of Hartford. He was on the track and football teams and his life was perfect.

  But the Virus was back.

  He had never actually worked with her, but she was gorgeous. He could tell that if she ever let her hair down and wore clothes that weren't gray (even though she looked ravishing in gray) she might actually be worth looking at. Hell, she was probably worth looking at while they were at good old Manticore. But in the field it wasn't about that. It was about destroying her.

  And he supposed, now that it wasn't the field anymore, it wasn't about destroying her anymore.

  Vada did a quick check in the mirror and brushed her long, straight, dark brown hair once more. She knew that 528 had none of her classes. But he did practice football after school on the team field, and she was just going to happen to be studying in the bleachers.

  She didn't know 528 very well. In fact, she didn't know many X6s very well. They were taught to hate her and want to destroy her. Her only friend at Manticore had been her surrogate father, her trainer, X5 494. She heard that he was going by the name 'Alec' nowadays, and that he lived in Seattle.

  But she knew what he looked like. Eyes- Blue. Sapphire blue. Hair- Golden blonde. Messy. Very messy. His brown roots showed and he was supposed to have been tan and muscular. The average American dream boy.

  Average wasn't quite the word. He WAS the American dream boy.

  Tucking the last strand in place, Vada was ready.

  "Vada. Vada Castellanos. Sounds like some sort of movie star." Jack murmured.

  "Sounds like a way to puke." Tristan replied.

  "Gorgeous sophomore I just spotted. I think her name is--." Leon interjected, having just joined his two friends.

  "Vada Castellanos." Tristan and Jack chorused. While Jack was enthusiastic, Tristan was sarcastic.

  "I know why St. Clair isn't affected, Jack." Leon announced proudly. "Where he comes from, all the girls have personalities, they're gorgeous, smart and have great families. They're athletic and they always share your interests."

  Tristan knew he was joking, but just to shut him up, Tristan told the truth. "You're right. Girls I'm used to _do_ have great personalities, they're gorgeous, smart, athletic, _and_ they share your interests. And you know their families well, and they wouldn't mind if you guys hooked up."

  Jack and Leon's jaws dropped.

  "Hey, it's the truth." Tristan said with a shrug.

  "Not that! Her!" Jack exclaimed. Tristan turned around to face the bleachers.

  And there she was. He had been right. She would be decent looking if she let her hair down and wore something that wasn't gray camouflage. Not only was she decent looking, she was gorgeous.

  Vada giggled in spite of herself. The girls in his unit had called him unaffected. Boy, were they wrong. The strong CO that never let anything get in his way was falling for her.

  So the plaid was okay.

  He didn't catch up with her until the next day. She was walking towards study hall. He had that elective, too.

  "Vada, eh?" Was all he had to say. She didn't even look at him.

  "X5 494 used to call me that. He was my surrogate." She replied coolly.

  "What brings you to Canterbury?"

  "You're not that clueless." She drawled.

  "No, I just didn't want to be too cocky in proclaiming that you're here because of me." He smirked at her. "Now, tell me. I never quite got a straight answer. What exactly were you designed to do?"

  "Kick the asses of arrogant bastards like you." She said with a sweet smile.

  "Playing hard to get, are you?" Tristan asked. "The name is Tristan St. Clair."

  "Pleasure meeting you. Goodbye." She walked briskly into the library and did something she was excellent at doing. She hid.

  ****Six Months Later: Castellanos House: February 14th****

   Vada sighed. She had been living in Hartford for a total of six months. Her 'Sweet Sixteen' party was going horribly. She had been avoiding Jackson Canterbury the XVIII fairly well, she noted.

  Bam.

  "Vada Castellanos. The princess of the ball." He seemed to murmur and drawl at the same time.

  "Jackson Canterbury the XVIII. What a pleasure." Vada lied through her teeth. She clutched her glass, filled with a virgin martini, tightly. He inched closer, letting one of his fingers feel the skin of her bare lower arm, working it's way up to the short, fluttering sleeves of her wine-colored dress.

  "The pleasure is all mine, birthday girl." He whispered. "Why don't we--."

  "I need to go to the bathroom." Vada muttered. She downed her drink and handed it to him. She walked to the foyer and past the stairs to the nearest bathroom.

  "Well, hello, Vada." Tristan St. Clair wore his usual smirk.

  "Urgh! Not you!" Vada shouted. 

  "Thanks for knocking." He replied with a smile.

  "This is my house, in case you haven't noticed." She replied with a scowl. Her eyes, heavily circled in Bobbi Brown and her lids were made up in a smoky fashion, narrowed. "What are you doing here?"

  "Can't I wish my favorite birthday girl happy fifteenth birthday?" He asked innocently. She noticed that he was clutching a martini glass in his hand, half empty.

  "It's my sixteenth birthday." She muttered through gritted teeth.

  "Not according to your actual birth certificate." Tristan put his drink on the bathroom counter and shoved his hands in the pockets of his pants.

  "What are you doing here? I don't buy the happy birthday crap." Vada said flatly.

  "Well, since I have been annoying you for the past few months, and it is your birthday, I thought I'd give you a little gift." Tristan leaned in, and Vada shoved him away. With her strength, she managed to slam him into the wall.

  "I don't think so." She muttered. "I'm leaving."

  She opened the door and bumped right into Jack Canterbury. She backed into the bathroom and slammed the door.

  "Alright, alright." She muttered, rolling her eyes.

  "I didn't even know this house had a planetarium." Vada whispered. "Amazing to look out on something that wasn't intentionally created."

  "It's even more gorgeous when you let the roof split and suddenly you're out on this great balcony." Tristan murmured, pulling her closer. "You're cold."

  "No, I'm not." She replied coldly.

  "Of course you're not." Tristan said sarcastically. "That's exactly why you're shivering."

  "Yep." 

  Tristan went over to flip a switch, and silently the roof opened to reveal the stars.

  "It's gorgeous." Vada whispered.

  "Like you."

  "Excellent maneuver."

  "Always thought so myself."

  "How exactly do you know this house better than I do?" Vada asked, turning around to face Tristan.

  "You wander around at parties, you know? Our foster families were very close friends before you came along." Tristan whispered, pulling her even closer and his arms snaked around her waist. "It's a great place to be alone."

  "And make out." Vada added dryly.

  "Don't know why they call you the Virus. You seem perfectly normal for a transgenic, you know?" Tristan planted a kiss on her forehead and pulled her so close the expensive fabric of their clothing rubbed softly together.

  "You haven't seen anything yet." Vada whispered into his shoulder. 

   "Spur of the moment idea." Tristan said after a few moments of comfortable silence.

  "What?"

  "We're leaving." Tristan got up.

  Vada sat up. "What?"

  "Simple. Grab a couple of your parents' statues and paintings and we go. Nobody notices and we're just going to be a couple of lost causes." Tristan explained, offering his hand. She didn't take it.

  "Are you nuts?" Vada asked, her eyebrows arched and a frown tugging at her lips.

  "No. Living here will turn us into—Well, normal people. We need somewhere urban."

  "Close." Vada murmured.

  "Totally hit by the Pulse." Tristan added.

  "New York City." Vada looked at him and he nodded.

  "My motorcycle is outside." Tristan told her.

  "No BMW?" Vada's eyebrows were still arched, but now for a different reason.

  "Couldn't manage it." Tristan told her.

  "Eh, your persuasive skills could use a little work." Vada shrugged. 

  "Let me guess, you've got a pony?" Tristan drawled.

  "With pink ribbons." Vada chirped.

   "Why did I not figure you'd get a vintage Harley? Even after the Pulse?" Vada asked, swinging a leather-clad leg over the motorcycle.

  "Because I give off the gorgeous, rich, James Dean vibes?" Tristan suggested.

  "More like I figured you stole it." Vada said with a shrug.

  "You got what we need?" Tristan asked.

  "If there's one thing you can count on, is my willingness to make my revenge on the woman who gives me a pony with pink ribbons." Vada told him. "They're in the pack."

  "Take one long look at the place, 'cause we aren't coming back." Tristan said.

  Vada looked at the house that she had just ransacked. She shook her head. "Go."


	2. Three Years After Manticore Has Blown Up

Disclaimer: See prequel. Jo, Tristan does NOT look like Chad Murray, his name was selected because it is some sort of counterpart to another character that we will introduce.. Later. 

  Alec normally didn't go to places like this. Well, that was a lie. But Sketchy had come across some passes to go across the country- New York City. And of course, Normal was the one who paid for them.

  Of course, he couldn't get his mind off of Max and what she could now be doing in Seattle. Why he had even done it, he didn't know. Now, he just wanted to get his mind off of things and go to a pretty classy place- For a strip joint.

  Classy was pushing it, he supposed. They had their rules, as all strip joints do, and they certainly didn't offer great deals like Twofers, but such is life. Striding in true to his character, he sat down in one of the leather chairs and soaked in the atmosphere.

  The pole dancer was quite talented and took care of her assets quite literally. Keeping in mind where she was, she was pretty well-dressed, being, everything was covered. She wore some sparkly red corset with a matching, thin lace panty covered in a sheer black sarong. With the dim lights, he could barely make out a face, but that never seemed to be a problem with him.

  Though when she looked up seductively, ending her routine, he saw the eyes of Max.

  The woman stepped off-stage, being followed by an amateur, compared to her at least. Alec was by her side in a second.

  "I knew you worked once a week, Max, but in New York? Are you that desperate to make sure Normal doesn't see you, because he's here somewhere." Alec muttered in her ear over the noise.

  "Watch it, buddy." She snapped, looking into his eyes.

  "Vada?" (A/N: Pronounced Beta, as in My Girl) Alec was surprised, and his grip on her forearm loosened.

  "Alec?" Her eyes widened.

  "What the hell are you doing her, Vada?" He growled, all of a sudden extremely protective. "You're seventeen!"

  "I needed the money, Alec. I needed the money. Plain and simple. And by the way, they don't know that!" She snapped. "We better go to the lounge. We're not allowed to talk to the customers."

  "If you needed the money, why didn't you just come to Seattle? I told you that I had a place." Alec shouted over the noise, following her into a small room. She closed the door and Alec stopped shouting.

  "It's soundproof." He muttered as she turned on the lights. There was a nice golden glow to the room and she nodded.

  "Yeah. A couple of the girls want to make extra money and need a soundproof place to do so." Vada shrugged.

  Alec raised his eyebrows.

  "I don't fall into that category, Alec." She told him. "I only do the X series. It's safer."

  "If only your sister would agree." He muttered, dropping onto the couch. "Squishy."

  "Apparently, that's how old men like it, according to Jaime." Vada said with a shrug. "Sister eh? She still is raising hell?"

  "In my heart, in my mind and in Seattle." Alec murmured.

  "God, who would have thought you'd go head over heels? Especially after Rachel." Vada clamped her hand over her mouth.

  "It's okay. I have to get over it anyway, don't I?" Alec didn't meet her worried gaze. "What the hell are you doing here? NYPD don't pay enough?"

  "Not enough for a two-story penthouse." Vada replied. "I split it with an X6 friend of mine."

  "Always had to live in the lap of luxury, didn't you, Vada?" Alec whispered.

  Vada handed him a drink. "They're after me."

  "What?" Alec looked at her in surprise. One of the nurses, a My Girl fanatic, had begun calling her Vada, and both the X6 and Alec had picked up the nickname. However, in the field, they called her the Virus. Nobody wanted to pick up the Virus if they could help it, because whoever she decided to take down, she would. And whoever she decided to love would be in just as much danger as her enemies. At least, as long as they weren't transgenics.

  "White thinks he needs me. They must have heard everyone call me the Virus." Vada shrugged. "I think there's something more."

  "Come to Seattle, Vada. It's safer."

  "And closer to Manticore."

  "Vada."

  "Alec."

  Alec shook his head. Vada was headstrong, beautiful and deadly. Almost exactly like her sister.

  "You need protection, Vada. You are the Virus." Alec stood up and walked over to one of the only people that he had emotions about.

  "I know you raised me, Alec, but you were just supposed to be a surrogate father of some sort. A trainer. You are not genetically my brother or my father or anything." She spat.

  "But the person who does share your genetics could protect you." Alec didn't dance around the subject.

  "Okay, okay, I'll go work at Mack's." She said finally. 

  "I'll be back."

  "Of course you will." Vada muttered, rolling her eyes. "Let me finish my shift and I'll quit."

  "Keep the underwear, though." Alec's playful and arrogant demeanor had returned.

  "Sure." Vada smiled.

  "Where were you this weekend?" Max asked sarcastically, letting Alec slam his locker closed. "Missed you at Twofers."

  Alec shot her a look.

  "Checking up on a lady-friend of mine in New York when I was with Normal and Sketchy." Alec muttered.

  "A lady-friend, eh?" Sketchy raised his eyebrows, having joined this conversation.

  "You dog. She's my—Cousin. Seventeen years old." Alec lied.

  "Cousin, eh? Dear friend, how did this little detail escape me?" She drawled. Alec felt a tingle go up his spine.

  "Later, Max." He said firmly, and for once, she didn't argue.

  "You two! Package, sector eight!" Normal shouted. "Thanks for the weekend, Alec!"

  The last time Max and Alec had to deliver a package together had been three years before when Alec had to think about his past.

  "Well? Who is this lady-friend?" Max asked, raising her eyebrows.

  "An X6 I trained back at good old Manticore. Escaped before you came, though. They called her the Virus, but I call her Vada." Alec sort of smiled wistfully.

  "Did you do her, or something?" Max spat, his happiness usually having to do with things like that.

  "No! Vada is like a little sister. Except she actually shares genetics with an X5. Her nurse always called her the Beta-test-version." Alec was back from his stroll down memory lane. "Great girl."

  "What were you training her to do?" Max had never seen Alec so happy for such a decent reason.

  "Be a home wrecker. Both on the field and off. That's why they call her the Virus." Alec rang the doorbell.

  "So she grew up at Manticore?" Max asked.

  "Sort of. Escaped about a year before the blast. I was heartbroken." The gates opened.

  "I'll bet." Max scoffed.

  "I was. I had been separated from Rachel for a year, and my only reason for staying at Manticore left." Alec shrugged.

  "And you stayed because?" Max arched an eyebrow in his direction.

  Alec laughed bitterly and shook his head. "You weren't there, Max. You wouldn't understand."

  Max didn't say anything.

  "You ran into your surrogate?" Tristan asked, cleaning out a glass. "That must have been uncomfortable."

  "Don't call him my surrogate. He's had a name for three years." Vada replied. "And it wasn't, really. He seemed cool about it. He tried to get me to Seattle again, though."

  "You've had a name for four, and you still use 734 as some sort of code. I don't know, Vada. Something's up."

  "Shut up, Triscuit." She muttered. "I'm getting a job at Mack's, okay?"

  "Whatever, Vada." Tristan muttered.

  "So, was Vada generally liked?" Max asked on their way back. The two X5s had been silent for twenty minutes.

  "No, actually. Everyone hated her because she could destroy them all in the bat of an eyelash." Alec sort of shrugged. "I was really the only one who liked her. She was sweet and headstrong."

  He would have added, "Like you." But he didn't want to get his ass kicked.

  "I thought it was hard at Manticore just being there. But to have everyone hate you? That must suck. I had Zack and Ben--." Max didn't finish.

  "I know. I had no one. So when they thrust Vada towards me and said, 'Train her.' I was a bit surprised. Incredibly gifted girl. They had her dancing and entered her into this mission, kind of like the one I did for Rachel. Except they didn't tell me. A little after she came back, she ran." Alec just pedaled a little harder.

  "Why don't you think they let you know she was on a mission?" Max asked, dipping her head to try to meet his gaze.

  "So I wouldn't tell her she'd destroy herself." Alec muttered.


	3. Dance, Little Girl

Disclaimer: See Prequel

  Vada made her way to the bar and stretched. She could hear 494 playing something incredibly depressing in the background, and she could see their goofy grins.

  She knew that Manticore hadn't told him where she was. She knew it just in the way he moved the day she had found out where she was going. He acted normal. He didn't even say goodbye. He would have said goodbye, good luck. Don't kill yourself.

  Don't fall for anybody.

  Vada should have learned her lesson through his stories about beautiful Rachel. She should have known that falling in love while on a mission is dangerous. Very dangerous.

**_  "Hi, I'm Natalia." Vada smiled at the boy sitting behind the desk. "I'm here for the audition."_**

**_  "Um, here." He fumbled through his papers nervously and there was a flush on his cheeks. Vada recognized it from what the people on the outside called embarrassment. Something she had never seen before. She was captivated. "I'm Tony. You must be auditioning for a spot in the chorus."_**

**_  Vada nodded. "That's right." Her target was right there in front of her._**

**_  "My father owns the company. Most of the time he puts me in the chorus just to keep an eye on me." Tony admitted. He ran a hand through his dark hair._**

**_  "Lucky. I can't ace an audition at all. They always say I'm too tall or too skinny or something." Vada grinned at him. He handed her a clipboard._**

**_  "If your dancing is anything like your looks, then they have to be crazy."_**

**_  Vada blushed to her surprise. "I bet you use that line on all the girls."_**

**_  "No, not really. I'm not even supposed to be here, but my father's mistress needed help. She's his secretary." Tony shrugged, and Vada was intrigued by his care-freeness. "What about your parents?"_**

**_  "I, um, live with my dad. He's a great guy. My parents had me young and I don't know my mother." Vada made up a lie. 494 counted as her dad, she supposed. He was a surrogate after all._**

**_  "I guess I understand what you mean." Tony said. "I guess I should leave you to filling out your audition information."_**

**_  "Actually, these are different from all the other audition forms I've gone through. Could you help me out?" Vada used her most innocent smile, the one that she used on 494 to get him to play 'Ten Minutes Ago' again._**

**_  "Yeah, these forms are crazy." Tony murmured. They sat down in the wicker-and-leather chairs._**

**_  Vada was so much reminded of 494, that she began humming 'Ten Minutes Ago'._**

**_  "I saw you." Tony sang in a low voice, following the tune and key perfectly. "I looked up when you came through the door."_**

**_  "My head started reeling, you gave me the feeling the room had no ceiling or floor." Vada followed, and the two burst out laughing._**

**_  "This is crazy. I have never sung Rogers and Hammersteins in the lobby of my dad's office." Tony admitted._**

**_  "Funny, the only time I sing Rogers and Hammersteins is when my dad is playing it." Vada told him._**

**_  "You know what? Screw the audition. You'll get in. Trust me. Let's go have some fun." Tony grabbed her hand and the clipboard fell to the floor._**

  "I wanted to ring out the bells, fling out my arms and to sing out the news!" Vada sang softly to herself as she began her pirouettes across the floor. "I have found him, he's an angel, with the dust of the stars in his eyes. We are dancing, we are flying, and he's taking me back to the skies!"

  She stopped when the image of Tony's face flashed in front of her. She couldn't stand it. She couldn't dance anymore. But then the beginning of the next track began to play and the horrible memories began to play in her head.

**_  "Is this Miss Natalia Christiansen?" The man on the phone that she had just been handed asked._**

**_  "This is she." Vada replied._**

**_  "We'd like you to be part of the 'Sparks of Magic' production, staring Anthony Andrews. You would play the love interest, Ana." _**

**_  Tony had pulled his strings. And now, she was going to dance._**

   494 struck the keys heavily, putting the heavy affect on 'Moonlight Sonata'. He had seen X6 528 watching him play and watch Vada dance. Vada wasn't on point yet, but she was beautifully interpreting the music. It was a dramatic song, and 494 felt that it described Manticore perfectly.

  Vada was expressing the music through her every movement. Her blinks, the way she rotated her wrists and stretched out her fingers, and especially the way her long legs moved, it was definite that 528's eyes were no longer on her. 510, another blonde X6 from another unit, had also stopped to watch. Then there was 548. He was a brunette X6 that Vada had chummed up with once when they were paired together. But they were never friends. All X6 males, all from different units, had their eyes on Vada.

  And he stopped.

  "That's enough, Vada." He corrected himself. "734."

  "But it is _never_ enough, 494." She told him flatly, her hands on her hips. By the time she turned around, 528, 510, and 548 had disappeared.

  494 began playing her favorite. He hated when she pouted.

  "Ten minutes ago--." She sang sweetly, dancing around the room with no real choreography in mind.

  "Vada, they were watching you." 494 whispered.

  "Who?"

  "510, 528, 548. Looks like those X6 boys are finally realizing what a hottie you are."

  "Oh, bother!" She muttered. "494, I refuse to listen to this!"

  "You refuse to admit you are attractive? Outsiders would jump to hear they are so god damn seductive." 494 said with a grin.

  "Whatever." She told him, rolling her eyes. "I would have seen them."

  "You see no one when you are dancing, Vada." 494 told her.

   Vada closed her eyes, hoping to block everything out. The explosion, the look on Tony's face, the music, the dancers, everything needed to go.

  Moonlight Sonata began to play in her head. It had been exactly what was playing when she got it into her mind to leave Manticore.

  494 wasn't playing it. After she had come back from her mission, 494 was no longer her surrogate. 548 played for her. 

  But he did not play as well as 494.

  When she danced, Manticore allowed her to wear a baby blue cross-over sweater over a white leotard, with light blue tights, and her very own pair of baby blue ballet slippers. With an icy blue sarong made of floaty material, she could close her eyes and instantly she was cold. Freezing. Goosebumps went down her arm as 548 played. It was the only thing that 548 was allowed to play, to remind her that she was not supposed to feel.

  Moonlight Sonata was Tony's favorite song. He often played it for her, to get her to dance. He had been playing it before the explosion. She knew it, just by instinct.

  She hadn't gotten there in time. She was just getting out of the Manticore car in the parking garage a block away when she heard it. She ran as fast as she could. Tony was making it out of the doors, and she nearly screamed for joy. But as he realized she was there, he smiled. And then he was shot.

  She rushed over, crying over his crumpled body, and she was being dragged away before she could scream or say goodbye or anything. And then she was unconscious. 

  And they continued to make her dance to it twice daily. 548 must have noticed that she closed her eyes every time he played, just to ensure that he didn't see the faraway look in her eyes.

  "You succeeded, 734. You killed the target's father and his cronies. With a little help, you got the target, too. He didn't suspect a thing."

  He didn't suspect a thing.

  Vada stopped dancing. She couldn't stand it anymore. She had to get out. She had to forget.

  But how could she forget when the very theater she had exploded was in perfect view from her balcony, still in ruins?


	4. What's In A Name?

    "Logan, he's not acting normally." Max protested. How she longed to have that temporary fix in the virus again. But at five grand a pop, it was like a once a year sort of thing.

  "News flash, Max. He's not normal. You're not normal. You're transgenics." Logan shook his head.

  "He's kept most of his past to himself. The first surprise was Rachel, and now with this Vada on the scene, he's all—I don't know. Human." Max jumped off the counter. "What's that?"

  "Looks like a once-empty air force base is back in action." Logan replied, getting some zoom pictures. "Can't get too many details, but the place is called 'Rawlings Air Force Base'. It's in Connecticut. But not too many airplanes take off from it."

  "News flash, Logan. The Pulse?" Max rolled her eyes.

  "This might explain why White has been off your back lately. The government may have a change of heart." Logan muttered.

  "For the better?" Max asked. But it seemed like a rhetorical question with the look in Logan's eyes.

  "So you're saying that Manticore might be reforming?" Alec asked in a hushed tone, closing his locker with a slam.

  "That's what it looks like. The pictures aren't too detailed." Max whispered.

  "We need to go to New York this weekend." Alec muttered flatly.

  "But--." Max began, but Alec interrupted.

  "452, this is not the time for explanations. At this moment, _I_ am your CO, and I'm telling you. We go to New York City, this weekend." Alec ordered. "Get the sector passes from Logan."

  Alec walked away, and once again Max was confused.

  "Leather?" Vada asked playfully. 

  Tristan shot her a look. "Like you care what I'm going to say."

  "I do." Vada insisted unconvincingly.

  "Hangover kit?" Tristan offered.

  Vada smiled with an empty look in her eyes. 

  "You danced again, didn't you?" Tristan asked worriedly. "It's not healthy to keep obsessing over this."

  "Spoken like a true Manticore soldier." Vada muttered. "I killed a guy."

 "It was a mission, Vada." Tristan said in a low voice.

  "A mission? That's all? I killed probably the only guy that would ever be naive enough to love me." Vada spat. "I'm off."

  Vada grabbed her purse and swept out of the penthouse.

  X6 510 would never forget his designation. He would never forget who he was sent out to capture, and bring back alive. He knew her DNA coding, her purpose, her designation, and he knew what she was supposed to look like.

  He took another scotch on the rocks. He had to remember that he shouldn't drink while on a mission, but he couldn't help it. He had to blend in, and he wasn't a dancer.

  "Hey, there." A bouncy brunette bartender chirped. He looked at her for a moment, and could already remember everything he could about the Virus.

  "Hi." He replied softly. She bent closer to hear him better.

  He studied her for a moment. She was wearing a top that did a horrible job of covering her from shoulder to hip, it was sparkly and bright red. She was also wearing a pair of leather pants that had no pockets. There was something gold attached to her belt, and her hair was in unruly, almost natural-looking curls.

  "You're cute." She said upfront. 

  Why they called her the Virus, he had never really figured out.

  "Want a drink?" He asked casually.

  "Yeah, sure." Vada let it slip, she needed a drink. The night had been horrible so far. One horrible guy after another horrible guy, thinking pick-up lines from the nineteen-eighties were some sort of compliment.

  Until this guy.

  He might have passed for Tristan's brother. That is, if Tristan had one besides. Besides a guy they had nicknamed Zack. His mother had been like hers and 492's. 

  The point was, he had messy blonde hair and deep blue eyes. He was tan and by what she could tell through the black leather, muscular.

  "VADA! You drinking?" A surly guy at the end of the bar asked.

  "Duh, Mack!" She replied with the flash of a smile.

  "If I have to-." But the blare of the music blocked him out.

  "He's no fun." Vada said with another bright smile. "The name is Vada. And you are?"

  "Did anyone ever tell you that the best things in life are anonymous?" He asked.

  "No." Vada replied. "I suppose you have your right to privacy as much as I do."

  "It's not a matter of privacy. I've just got this really dorky name and maybe if you get to know me, you won't judge me on it." If his anonymous line was bad, this one was absolutely horrible.

  Vada smiled. "Riiiight."

  "So, what is it you'll be drinking?" He asked her.

  "Something loaded with alcohol. Just four of these can get me to pass out." Vada muttered, pouring herself a drink in a large glass. "You're paying, of course."

  He laughed, to his surprise. "Of course."

  Several drinks later, Vada was not looking too good.

  "I'm taking a break, Mack." Vada muttered, grabbing her purse and heading upstairs to the employee lounge.

  But before she could even get to one of the sofas that she found so easy to fall asleep on, she passed out.

  Vada opened her eyes slowly. The gorgeous blonde guy was hovering over her.

  "You wanted a name?" He muttered, heaving her over his shoulder like Santa Claus with a sack of toys. "X6 510."

  510? Vada knew that designation from somewhere. 

  "But my friends call me Christian." 

  Friends? How could a lying weasel who got girls drunk to kidnap them have friends?

  "Hope you're comfortable. It's a long ride to Connecticut."

  And then Vada blacked out once more.


	5. Rawlings

  "Where is she?" Tristan demanded, pushing Mack into the bar. The club was empty and it was dawn.

  "Beats me. The damn bitch disappeared for a break and haven't seen her since." Mack was not an attractive man. He was hairy, balding, and had a pot belly.

  "I am going to repeat this one more time.." Tristan muttered.

  "Where the fuck is she?" A voice rang out. "I've searched her apartment and the entire city. Where the fuck is she?"

  Tristan and Mack looked at the entrance to see a dangerous-looking brunette man and an equally dangerous-looking brunette woman behind him.

  "I tried getting an answer out of him, 49—Alec. The man won't budge." Tristan replied, standing up straight.

  "At ease, soldier." The woman muttered sarcastically. "It's only Alec."

  "And this would be Max." Alec introduced his companion before grabbing 'Mack' by the collar. "Where the fuck is Vada?"

  "Jesus, the girl isn't that good-looking." Mack murmured.

  "Mack, meet Alec. Her big brother. Kind of." Tristan introduced Alec before shaking Max's hand. "X6-528."

  Max nodded. "Got a name to go with that? Or are you still living in the fantasy world of Manticore-Will-Rise-Again?"

  "Tristan." He murmured. And he saw it. It was 492, Vada's—

  "Got a picture of her?" Max demanded.

  "Hello? Do we seem like the kind of people that would like to have pictures of ourselves just _lying_ around?" Tristan whispered. Max rolled her eyes.

  "That's right. What does she look like?" Max said in a hushed tone.

  Tristan appraised the transgenic in front of him. "Like you, minus a few years. She's seventeen but she looks twenty-one. Adores black-cherry lip gloss, red sparkly clothing, black leather, those NYC Pen Pals solid cologne thingies.."

  Max grinned. This guy had a crush on her if the word crush ever fit anyone better.

  "She was SEVENTEEN?" Mack demanded, only to be pushed even further against the not-so-smooth surface of the bar.

  "Well?" Alec snapped.

  "Well, there was this one guy. Black leather, blonde- Spent the whole night with her and followed her into the lounge when she took her break." Mack said slowly.

  "Damn." Alec let go of the pathetic man and swept out of the club. "Let's go, Max."

  Max was not exactly the following, quiet and meek type. But she followed Alec anyway. And Tristan followed in pursuit.

  Vada woke up groggily. "Damn Tristan. Never has his stupid hangover kit around when you need it."

  She tried reaching for a bar, a pole, anything-- and found that her hands were in handcuffs. She rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Even with a hangover, they can't honestly think--"

  She didn't finish her sentence, just pulled her arms apart and the strong metal chain linking the two wristlets broke.

  She looked around, dizzy. She didn't know where she was. She was still in the clothes of the night before.

  And she slightly remembered the night before. She was—Dare she even think it? Kidnapped?

  She looked around her. Who would want to kidnap her and keep her alive? White would just murder her in her drunken sleep.

  But then she remembered Alec's speculation about White—That perhaps the government had wised up and figured out their biggest assets were brain-washed superhumans.

  The dizzy feeling came back again.

   "You'd be surprised what the Virus looks like now." 510 was muttering. "Definitely what the ideal breeding partner is."

  "Isn't she--.." 534 began, but there was a bang in the cafeteria. The occupants of the room had their eyes on the door in a second flat.

  Two X7s, on either side of a brunette girl, were holding her up by the arms and she was kicking and screaming and they almost lost their grip. Almost.

  "Is that her?" 521 asked, his eyes appraising her quickly.

  510 nodded. The two X7s escorted her to their table and handcuffed her down. She smiled at them sweetly and they left.

  When they were out of sight, she snapped all of the handcuffs in two. 

  "I may be hung-over, tired, hungry and confused, but they need a lot more than HANDCUFFS to keep me down." She muttered, grabbing 510's sandwich.

  "I was eating that!" He protested, and she shot him a look. At first, it was angry, but then, it was confused.

  "I know you from somewhere." She whispered, before finishing the sandwich. "Thanks."

  "I wish she had god damn listened to me!" Alec was shouting, punching a wall. Max looked on silently with wide eyes. "She's so god damn stubborn and for all we know, she could be fucking dead."

  "She's too smart for that." Tristan snapped, taking a sharp turn.

  "Why do I have to be here?" Max asked after a moment.

  "Because she's your fucking sister." Alec shouted at her, glaring at her having audacity to talk.

  Max then knew that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Alec never lost his temper. He was always cool, casual, calm, collected and cocky. And wasn't everyone at Manticore related?

  "Where are we?" He demanded shortly, taking his eyes off of Max and directing his glare at Tristan.

  "Our apartment." Tristan had Alec's normal demeanor. Cool, casual, calm, collected and cocky. You could tell just by the way he talked to Alec. As if he was a silly little boy wasting Tristan's time. "You've been here, supposedly."

  Alec was tight-lipped, though Max knew he would have said, "You bastard! You can't talk to me like that! I can snap your neck in two without blinking!"

  But of course, Max knew Alec wasn't acting normal at all. And come to think of it, neither was she.

  Vada looked at the walls around her and screamed.

  "I look horrible in gray. HORRIBLE." She shouted. "And does ANYONE ask me if they want to kidnap me and turn me into the star attraction at the Manticore Museum of Weirdos? NO!"

  "And what is _with_ this 510 person? Who the HELL is he?"

  She couldn't believe that she was shouting at the walls.

  "Could I be any more pathetic, talking to myself?" She murmured, lying down on her bunk and curling up into a ball.

  "What would be more pathetic was if I answered myself."

  "And this I am doing."

  "I have to get out of here."

  "Now."

  Vada had had a bad day.

  First, it was the food.

  The horrible, horrible food.

  Then it was the drills.

  She realized she hadn't done a push-up since her days with Tony.

  And then the whole thinking about Tony thing sort of screwed it up.

  And she was hungry.

  So she smarted off to her colonel.

  And didn't get to eat lunch.

  And now, HE had to trip her.

  He, the only he that there could be, Vada hated when her thoughts rhymed, was the calm, the cool, the collected, the casual, the cute, the COCKY bastard whose face triggered some nerve in her body. 

  She whipped around and thoroughly kicked his ass before he had time to think.

  And then, she was in the middle of practically killing him when several pairs of hands strongly pulled her away, kicking and screaming.

  Tristan looked in surprise at his apartment. It was completely trashed. 

  He looked back at Alec, who shrugged. Max, the only quiet and sensible one the entire day, looked away.

  "I needed Vada. Didn't find her." Alec said flatly.

  "I don't see why you don't like me, 494." Tristan growled.

  "You slept with a girl that I consider my daughter." Alec snapped, darting in front of Tristan in a second. The two were inches apart and Alec did not look happy.

  Tristan kept the same cocky demeanor, looking at Alec simply. "Is it that obvious?"

  Max winced when she saw Alec get even angrier. She didn't know what was wrong with her- The fact that she was meekly sitting back and watching this whole ordeal, the fact that she didn't seem to care about this 'sister' or the fact that if this person was her 'sister' that Alec might consider _her_ his daughter too?

  Instantly, she ran over, separating the two. "How on earth are we going to find her if you kill each other? I certainly don't know what she looks like!"

  Tristan and Alec looked at her as if she was crazy.

  "It would be as if you were looking in the mirror." Tristan murmured.

  "Don't exaggerate." Alec ordered. But he looked Max over again. "But almost like that. An obvious resemblance."

  Max was asking herself why she liked that Alec had his eyes on her. And why was it getting more and more confusing to be helping these two.

  "Come on, 734, what is your problem?" White demanded of her. She was being held down by eight X7s, so there was little if no risk. "Still bitter over Anthony's death."

  She spat at him. "You fucking bastard of an asshole."

  He smiled in a very White way. "Articulate, 734, articulate."

  She had her mouth shut.

  "Now, darling, you've been raised in this environment. Has four years of the outside really done this to you?" White asked, almost resembling a concerned father.

  She growled. "It wasn't the outside that did this to me, it's in my DNA."

  White laughed. "What a Manticore excuse. You are the epitome of Manticore."

  Vada looked horrified.

  At that, White could only laugh more. But he sobered quickly. "Damage one of my Xs ever again and I will personally ensure your life is a living hell. I put a lot of time in finding the best of the best and killed off the stubborn ones. I shall take pleasure in watching you bleed."

  She sneered at him, but inside, she was worried.

  "In trouble already, 734?" Somebody asked innocently as she stormed out of White's office.

  "What the fuck is your problem?" Vada demanded, knowing it was 510 already.

  "Well, it starts off with this beautiful athlete hating my guts and trying to kick my ass.."

  "Trying? I kicked your ass from here to the next century!" Vada shouted, whipping around.

  "You wish." He said cockily, leaning on the wall and smirking.

  "I can do it again, if you want proof." Vada hissed.

  "734! That is IT! You can't honestly be.." White kept rambling and 510 was still smirking. "To your cell! No dinner!"

  Vada was about to protest, but she figured there was no use. She would need breakfast tomorrow morning.


	6. Hold On, Hold On, Hold On. How Does MAX ...

  "Decided to bring you a little something, 734." 510 chirped cockily, throwing her two dinner rolls. She caught them. "Glad to see you aren't still recuperating from that ass-whopping I gave you."

  "What, is it in your DNA to forget important details?" She snapped before downing the two rolls. "What are you doing in my cell anyway?"

  She pulled her knees closer to her chest as she glowered.

  "Don't you know?" He whispered in her ear. She inched away, hoping he didn't notice her cringe.

  She just glared at him.

  "So, will you start undressing, or will I? Or we can make a game of it." He suggested happily, scooting closer to her.

  "Slow down, tiger!" Vada ordered, her eyes widening. "There will be no undressing of any kind!"

  "Our orders, 734." 510 reminded her, placing two fingers on the hem of her gray t-shirt.

  "Our orders are bullshit." Vada hissed, slapping his fingers away. 

  "Bullshit they may be, but.." He sort of let his arms snake around her waist. "Bullshit is fun."

  Vada rolled her eyes, and pushed his arms off of her. "The only way you're going to 'copulate' with me is if I'm unconscious."

  "That wouldn't be too fun." 510 said with a smirk. "You'd be limp and unresponsive."

  "Just like certain parts of your body, soldier." Vada muttered.

  "You want to make sure that you can still kick my ass?" He challenged, raising an eyebrow and standing up.

  "I don't need to check." Vada grumbled in reply. "I could give you a one-way ass-kicking from here to eternity. Pack your bags if you want to swing at me."

  "Let's make this a fair fight then, _Vada_." He retorted, and she narrowed her eyes, standing up.

  "_You_ are the bastard who kidnapped me." She snapped.

  "One and the same." He was smirking, his arms out in this sort of 'who-me?' expression.

  Vada was holding back a bit, and she punched him.

  Instantly, he grabbed her arm and stopped it. 

  She tried punching him again, and he had a tight grip on her arms. She tried to kick her way out of it, but she ended up turned around with her arms pinned behind her back. She let out a little whimper.

  "Oh, is this hurting the big, bad Virus?" 510 mocked.

  "Oh, no." Vada whispered, oozing in fake pain. "But this will."

  She aimed her kick right at what male strippers call 'the moneymaker'.

  She bent over his curled-up figure. "That's as close to copulating as we're ever going to get."

  Tristan and Alec were still arguing and Max wanted to scream.

  So she did.

  "Will somebody **please** explain who this _damn_ girl IS so I can help you and we can go home?" She shrieked.

  Alec looked at her painfully. "We believe she shares some of the same DNA coding with you, as well as the same surrogate mother, so in technicality, this girl is your only family left."

  Max swallowed thickly. "You were defending my baby sister?"

  Alec nodded, and he swore that Max had a tear in her eye. But even _his_ transgenic eye couldn't spot it after a moment.

  "She was the equal of a daughter to me, Max. I can't lose her. In a way, she's the only family _I've_ got left." Alec was ignoring the other ten million thoughts running through his head. "We've got to find her, Max. We have to."

  "Then we head back to Seattle for the one resource we have left." Max said finally. 

  "Logan." Alec spat in explanation to Tristan, who he STILL didn't get along with.

   On the drive back, Max figured something out.

  "Turn around. I know where she is and we're going to need back-up." She ordered, taking in a sharp breath.

  "What are you talking about, Maxie?" Alec whispered. 

   Max tried to ignore the fact that his breath felt nice on her ear, and she tried to ignore the pang in her heart when he called her that _name_.

  "Your Manticore instincts are right." She replied breathlessly. "They've started it on this air base called Rawlings. It was not easy taking down Manticore the first time, and it shouldn't be easy now."

  She knew it the instant she woke up and 510 was unconscious on the floor. It wasn't normal for her to be wanting him, and she thought back, hoping her cycle wasn't—

  Okay, 510 was becoming irresistible. No doubt about it.

  Her feline DNA was SO not helping right now.

  She did only what she could do. She started shoving 510 out of her cell and locking it behind him.

  She couldn't stay here much longer without bursting. Or turning into one of them.


	7. Awkward Misconceptions

  Christian woke up outside of 734's cell and instantly he banged on the door.

  "Wouldn't do that if I were you. They might put her under quarantine." The guard, he didn't really care what his name was, told him.

  "Quarantine?" Christian asked wearily.

  "She threw you out last night and went to puke. Said she didn't want to infect her breeding partner or to allow defects on the child in question." The guard replied. "You have to head down to the hospital lab."

  Christian groaned. The last time he had been to the hospital lab was during the twin testing period. He and his twin had to undergo serious testing because of some crazy twin. The other one was normal, but..

  "Go on, kid. You don't want to be put under quarantine." 

  Christian almost stumbled into the makeshift lab. He instantly went over to his friends, but they backed away.

  "534, 521. That is not necessary. We've taken a blood sample and whatever the Virus has, it isn't contagious." One of the doctors looked him over. "A little late, 510, but that's it. I guess you're fine. The three of you are free to go."

  Christian glared at them. They had actually thought _he_ would endanger their lives. They were being selfish, only thinking about _their_ health. They weren't even worried about him.

  Alec looked at her in a sideways glance.

  "What I would have done for you." He whispered.

  She looked at him over the ammunition, perplexed.

  "You gave me a hand when I was just--- I was just getting it. Understanding life. And now, you don't even demand details. You just.." He smiled at her in the way that he did that night she nearly killed Logan. When he had just been rejected by Asha, or rather, vice versa. Bitter and reminiscing.

  "Help?" Max asked quietly. 

  He nodded. "I'm still trying to figure out who she is. I buried the memory of her deep inside of me, I blocked her out. I thought she had just left me at Manticore with no one to support me when I cried about Rachel."

  Max gulped.

  "When you busted us out, the first normal, human thought that went through my head was that she was right. She needed out." Alec paused to take a deep breath. "As far as we know, she shared your surrogate mother. The one who carried you. They convinced her to do it again, telling her she'd be Vada's nurse. They kept their promise. But as to what other connections she's got to you, I'm pretty clueless."

  Max put her hand on Alec's. "I think Tristan knows.."

  "They assigned him in DNA lab with this other X6 Vada knows. He's the only one who knows and he refuses to say a word. He seems to think he knows Vada better than I do."

  Max let out a tiny giggle. Alec was being very overprotective and very serious. For once.

  "He doesn't, Max! I'm her surrogate. I know Vada, and the only thing she wants in life is to find her real family. Genetics." Alec shot Max a look, because she was still giggling.

  Alec's eyes filled with pain. "Besides keeping the four of us alive- Me, you, Joshua and Vada- that's the only thing I've wanted, too. Except for something that… Would be like reaching for the stars."

  "Alright, 734. You can stop playing. Everyone knows that if anything, YOU are the epitome of immunity." The guard tried to stop him, shooting him a warning look, but then she spoke.

  "Come on in."

  "You sure you want to do this?" The guard whispered. Christian nodded. He opened up the door and Christian looked around the room.

  "Vada."

  "Christian."

  "Having our mensies, are we? So afraid to admit you've been out there so long that you're getting their health cycles, too?" Christian asked, slamming down on the floor next to her, expecting to be punched.

  "You want to have sex?" Vada replied breathlessly.

  "W-w-what?" Christian demanded, taking a good look at her. Her fists were clenched, but she managed to snap back.

  "That's a good thing about the _outsiders_' men. They can deal with a suggestion that two people just make it like rabbits." She shot him a smug look. "In case you don't know what that means, its hot and heavy sex."

  "I know what it is. I can handle it. Just give me a couple of years to breathe." His breathing became short and ragged.

  "Figures that when I need you to be hormone-driven and horny, you turn out to be a virtuous virgin who believes I don't know what I'm doing." Vada muttered, inching closer to him.

  "I'm not a virgin. They try to break you in early here, if you know what I mean."

  After snapping that cool reply, Christian gulped. He was torn between doing the right thing and doing _her_.

  She giggled. It was as if she had read his mind.

  "How can you do that?" He whispered. She leaned over, her hands lightly resting on his thighs.

  "It's this amazing thing called heat." 

  The soft whirr of Logan's synthetic legs was oddly irritating to her now.

  Things had been awkward. She ignored her own warning, because she knew that the three of them- Alec, Joshua and herself- they just couldn't operate without Eyes Only.

  He still believed that she and Alec had had something, because Max couldn't bear to tell him it was nothing.

  Because it didn't feel like nothing.

  It was another instance where she needed him and he was there. He was reliable and he loved her.

  But Logan wasn't..

  He was everything she needed- Everything they needed. And here he was, whipping out sector passes and new identities and everything they could possibly use.

  Good old reliable Logan.

  She glanced across the room at Alec and he smiled at her reassuringly. He believed that she could help him. He believed in her a lot more than he believed in _Asha_.

  At first Max thought she hated the blonde because she had Logan's attention. But there were more reasons. She just wouldn't listen to them for now.

  "X6-548, at your service." 

  He was a brunette boy with wide blue eyes and a smaller form. He was athletic, indefinitely, but Max saw him more as the brains of a mission than the head of it.

  "How come they haven't sought you out, Matt?" Alec called across the apartment.

  "They think I'm dead." He answered slowly. "Vada's very precious to me. Befriended her during that time when.."

  Matt's eyes met Alec's and the conversation diminished.

  "What did Vada do?" Max asked softly.

  "She was trained to be an assassinator in point." Tristan drawled. "Rather dumb if you ask me."

  Alec was over there in seconds flat, with Tristan backed up against a wall. "Dancing was one of the only things that let her spirit soar while we were there. It kept you alive for quite some time, if I remember correctly. You leave that alone, if you're so god damn determined to find her."

  Everyone but Max looked another way, as if to pretend that nothing had happened. But something had. Something deeper than even she could figure out.

  She had spent hours with him up on the Space Needle. And now he was returning to this bottled-up character he had been in the beginning. She didn't need it.

  "Alec, you want me to hurry this up?" She asked, walking over to him and gently sliding her arm into the crook of his own.

  "If it wouldn't be pushing our superhuman strength and intelligence." He managed to say through gritted teeth. "I want to find her and I want to find her now."


	8. What We Do Discover...

  "I can't do this." Christian muttered as soon as Vada had pulled his shirt off in a wild, animalistic frenzy.

  He looked at her sadly. She was beautiful in this hurried fashion. Her face fell considerably.

  "You're too beautiful to be wasted on me." 

  She sat down on her bunk and bent over, her head in her hands. "God, I wish I could control this."

  Christian pulled his shirt back on and sat down next to her. He slipped an arm around her shoulder. "When did it start?"

  She sort of looked at him, reluctant to speak, but she shrugged that idea off. "When they decided that I wasn't a kitten anymore. It hit when I turned thirteen, but it didn't really affect me until I was fifteen."

  She leaned her head onto his shoulder.

  "God, only two years to learn to control it." She murmured.

  "And you haven't learned very well." He whispered. She giggled.

  "Thanks. For not taking advantage of me. I really appreciate.. I'm not used to that kind of consideration." 

  Christian looked at her. "Who else knows about it?"

  "528."

  Images flashed before Christian's eyes. Commanding Officer X6-528. His twin. His asshole twin. His bastard twin.

  "Must have been a total jackass." Christian muttered.

  Vada shook her head. "No. He's a hormone-driven jackass who tries to take care of me by protecting me from the wrong things and exposing me to the wrong things."

  "Did you ever try and sort him out?" Christian asked.

  Vada sighed. "I need to sort myself out before I start to work on Tristan."

  Matt inserted a tiny disk into one of Logan's hand-me-down laptops from 2008. He began typing furiously.

  Search:     Beta Test Virus X6 4112088952734 **AKA** X6 734 -----  DNA Records         

  It took a few minutes, and Alec's yelling at Tristan didn't help his concentration, but Matt looked at the words that spelled out Vada's DNA.

  Nester: Yvette Meier

  National Lampoon's: Catwoman (55/100) Werewolf (11.666/100)

  Patriarch Fish: X5-3313437512494

  Matriarch Cuckoo: X5-332960073452  

  Description: Patriarch's bridge of nose, Matriarch's shape of nose, Matriarch's eyes and eyebrows, Patriarch and Surrogate's lips. Matriarch's form, Patriarch's creativity. Patriarch's heart and Matriarch's Mammal DNA

  Matt scowled at the screen, knowing that he couldn't decipher the codes tonight, printing out a copy and putting a password on the information.

  It was late and Matt was on Alec's couch, dead asleep and lying on his stomach.

  Max couldn't resist. She searched for the DNA for the sleeping figure. Her eyes widened as she decoded the information.

  He was Jondy's son.

  He didn't look like her, minus the dark hair, but then, of course, his father had the dominant DNA.

  Tristan, though a second earlier he had been asleep, sat up, eyeing the room suspiciously. When his eyes rested on Max, he calmed down a bit.

  "By definition, how exactly did they make the X6s?" She asked him.

  She looked at him seriously. It was two in the morning at Logan's and Tristan was surprised to see her on this side of town.

  "By definition, they choose two different DNA tubes and popped half of each into another tube. X6s are literally the children of X5s, except most of the X5s were about seven years old when the X6s were born. Vada and I were seven during the escape of '09. They chose Vada's designation by three digits of her mother's designation, the last one being the beginning of the nickname. So, we know that Vada's mother's designation begins with four." 

  She eyed him wearily. "You've been waiting a long time to say that, haven't you?"

  "I told Alec a million times, and he got sick of hearing it." Tristan said with a shrug. "Go back to Alec's place, anyway."

  She scowled. "I don't live there."

  Tristan smirked at her. "You might as well."

  Max glared at him. "I'm with Logan."

  Tristan rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, 452."

  She got up and headed out the door.

  "Why'd you ask, anyway?" Tristan shouted after her.

  "I knew Matt's mother. She escaped with me in '09." Max swallowed the lump in her throat. "In a way, he's my nephew."

  Tristan nodded solemnly.

  "Do you know who your parents are?" She asked, standing in the doorway in a solid stance.

  "Another CO and just another X5. I did my background check. My twin and I have parents that aren't you or 494." Tristan answered.

  "What does Alec think about Vada's parents?" Max found herself whispering.

  "He thinks that you and Vada share a surrogate mother and lots of the same DNA. Which would link you as sisters. But he doesn't know for sure." Tristan murmured in reply.

  "And you?" Max raised her eyebrows expectantly.

  "When she knows, you'll know." Tristan snapped. "You better go back to Alec's."

  "I better." Max agreed, walking out with a grim look on her face.

   Max crept back into Alec's apartment and found both Alec and Matt sitting on the couch, waiting for her.

  "We need to move out." Alec explained with a grim face.

  "Tristan is a bastard." Max said in a flat, even voice.

  "Good to see we all agree on something." Matt muttered, rolling his eyes. "Let's go."

  Alec and Max looked at him worriedly, but they set to work.

  "My baby." Alec whispered. His beautiful red convertible that Max had just gotten him back for his 'birthday'. The anniversary of the day the both of them escaped. 

  "Huh?" Max asked playfully. He shot her a look that Matt and Tristan couldn't translate, but Max understood it. She understood it damn well. "Let it go, Alec."

  Alec glared at Matt and Tristan, and they inched away.

  "I _had_ to let Rachel go, because she would have died. I _had_ to let Asha go, because she isn't our kind. But you will end up Mrs. Logan Cale and I will end up in the dirt, asking myself **why** I let _it_ go. Don't tell me to let it go when I deserve you as much as he does, if not more." He hissed at her.

  "You know perfectly damn well why I'm with Logan, and you know it's killing me. I hate using him and casting you aside, but this is for our survival." She retorted, never allowing him to have the last word. She started walking out of Tristan and Vada's apartment when he grabbed her by the wrist.

  "How am I supposed to survive knowing that you'll die Mrs. Logan Cale and I'll die alone?" He demanded in a hushed tone. "I'm only a pain in the ass when you decided you can't handle me."

  "Let's get this mission over with before we kill each other." Max whispered flatly.

  Alec rolled his eyes and whipped his head around, glaring at the two X6s. "We're moving out. Tristan, you're in charge of that gang of X6s and that X8 Max forced us to deal with and Matt, you're with our favorite little X5s."

  "And you?" Tristan asked, crossing his arms in a smug manner.

  "I'm with this bi--- I'm with Max." 


	9. May Just Be Too Much

  It was the second night of heat, and Christian had Vada sitting cross-legged with her back to him, and he held her by her wrists.

  "So, why are you so fascinated with me?" Christian asked, changing the subject from Vada's explanation of her life on the outside.

  Her head whipped around. "What makes you think that?"

  He raised his eyebrows.

  "Well," She admitted sheepishly, "You don't pull your punches."

  "That's it?" He asked, hoping it wasn't all that simple.

  "Well, I'm not used to it. I've never fought with Alec, Tristan lets me win, Matt can barely defend himself, so I can't go all out on him, and everyone else here is afraid I'll kill them all if they blink." Vada rolled her eyes. "I guess I've never been matched up against.."

  "Someone who has the same amount of strength and isn't afraid to use it?" Christian offered.

  "Tristan isn't afraid to use his strength, he's just not willing to hurt me because.." Vada trailed off, not planning on finishing her sentence. 

  "Because he knows in any other battle, you can hurt him back?" Christian finished.

  "No," Vada snapped, "Tristan has feelings for me. What they are at this moment aren't exactly clear to me, but that doesn't mean you can just…"

  Christian gently let go of her wrists.

  Vada looked at her hands in wonder, scooting so that she could face him.

  "Christian?" She murmured, looking at him with hope in her eyes. Hope that he knew what he was doing, that he knew the answers to her questions.

  So naturally she found it odd that she was leaning forward and softly kissing him on the lips.

  "What is your problem?" Max demanded.

  "_My_ problem? You are the one who refuses to look my way for fear that… I don't even know what you're afraid of!" Alec shouted at her.

  "Will you be quiet?" She hissed. "Do you think I can be inconspicuous with this huge bulge coming out the hem of my shirts? If anything had happened.."

  "You'd have a lot to explain? Well, you seem to be pretty good at explaining away my absences. You seem to be pretty good at explaining why I do things the way I do, or why I do them. Those statements have not a sliver of truth behind them, so I'd say you practiced pretty well." Alec snapped in a low tone.

 Max inhaled sharply and slapped him.

 Alec rubbed his cheek. "What was THAT for?"

 Max looked at her hand in disgust. "For every time I wish I could have done that to Logan."

  Alec shook his head with a bitter chuckle. "God, I wish you'd stop that."

  Max looked at him, bewildered.

  "I'm not your touchable Logan with another face, another demeanor. You can't pretend that I am. It makes things more difficult." His eyes flickered towards the car they had 'borrowed'. "And I for one am sick of it."

  Max swallowed thickly. "And you don't think I'm not?"

  Alec chuckled bitterly and shook his head. "No. Because if you were so fucking sick of it, you'd stop. Get in the car."

  Max didn't have to be told twice. The cold air was not helping the tension at all.

  "Here you go. Just as I promised." Tristan pushed a handcuffed Matt towards White. 'Damn this man is stupid.'

  "Get in the car, 528." White muttered.

  "Who?" Tristan raised his eyebrows and his hands in a very 'Cops'-like position. 

  "Fine, play dumb." White sort of laughed while four X7s and two X6s came out, seizing the pair of transgenics.

  "This isn't the plan." Matt hissed.

  "Well, it doesn't take a TRANSGENIC to figure that out now, does it?" Tristan whispered, as the both of them were tossed into the back of a van, where they were cuffed with about twenty different restraints and when they looked up, they found---

  "Vada!" The two chorused.

  Vada rolled her eyes, trying to cross her legs, which were cuffed with about six pairs of metal restraints. "Do you really think they were going to leave the bait at the base?"

  They shook their heads guiltily.

  "Which one of you idiots came up with this plan? Alec? Tristan? Do not tell me it's my sister's stupid boyfriend L--Luke." Vada started rambling, using different code names and glaring at the two transgenics in front of her. "You know, it wasn't that bad."

  "Not that bad? Not that bad? You know why? You're like royalty at Manticore. _We're_ not." Matt snapped through gritted teeth.

  "You know why I'm royalty? I developed PEOPLE SKILLS." Vada shouted at them. "I am a PEOPLE PERSON. The either of you would rather shut yourselves up in a room and talk about who gets to chase the greased pig for my hand in marriage first."

  "I bet you've made a friend already." Tristan chirped sarcastically.

  Vada blushed and looked back down at her feet.

  "She's slept with someone!" Matt exclaimed excitedly, unaware of Vada and Tristan's little 'situation'. "Who?"

  Vada smiled a bit. "You might have known him."

  The car jolted a bit.

  "Come on, 734." White didn't even have to force her. She smiled back at Tristan and immediately her thoughts went through his head.

  "She's going to fuck him." Tristan whispered in horror.

  "No way." Matt murmured.

  Tristan looked back at his companion to find that he had worked his way out of his restraints.

  Matt shrugged. "Super intelligence and a little strength. What were you talking about?"

  Tristan looked at Matt worriedly. "What were _you_ talking about?"

  "I decoded Vada's DNA." Matt said simply.

  Tristan's eyes widened and he leaned forward. "No one.." He whispered seriously, "And I mean _no one_ is supposed to know that."

  Matt's eyes grew larger. "You know?"

  Tristan laughed bitterly. "Do I ever. I've been protecting Vada from it. I can't separate her from Alec, but Max is easy to flick off because Vada's never met her. She came across some of my deciphering and I told her Max was her sister. If you tell her.."

  Matt looked at Tristan with pure disgust. "You'll be out of a job. If I tell her, she'll go to Seattle and you'll be left with no safe whore."

  Matt closed his eyes. "The coast is clear. I'm getting to Max and Alec before you screw this up."

  "I hate that song."

 ---"I love that song."

  Alec chuckled in that angry/sad way of his as he flicked the radio off. "That removes 'music' from the 'things-in-common' list."

  Max rolled her eyes and tsked. "Like we ever had anything in common."

  "We could kick ass in the boxing ring." Alec offered.

  "That's in our DNA." Max snapped.

  "We both lost people to Manticore. People that made us feel." Alec suggested after a moment, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to an invisible beat.

  "I haven't lost Logan." Max whispered.

  "Well, I lost a person that made me feel to Manticore, and I lost both of the others to Logan Cale. And you call me a Casanova?" Alec raised his eyebrows.

  Max was about to quip at him, but Alec slammed on the brakes, trying to avoid hitting--- Matt.

  Matt opened up one of the luxury SUV's backdoors. "Drive. And don't head for Rawlings. Head for Wyoming."


	10. To Wyoming!

  Christian headed over to Vada's cell, and the old X4 that had been guarding it was missing.

  He chuckled. The X4 had grown rather attached to Vada, after all, she _did_ have people skills.

  "4?" He asked teasingly, knocking on her door.

  There was no answer. His brow wrinkled in confusion. "4?"

  There was only one thing to do. He kicked down the door.

  His heart stopped for a second. There were pieces of the building everywhere, and the old X4 was lying there in a pool of blood. They must have killed him to get to Vada--- The X4 was always suspicious of the X7s, especially when it came to his ward. 

  The opposite wall had been kicked through, and one of the 'disposable' X7s was lying there, not looking much better than the X4. They must have been waiting on the other side of the wall for her.

  They were big enough idiots to leave a perfect exit for him.

  And he would leave.

  He wasn't going to let her go.

  Tristan figured out how to get the chains off and just as he was about to get out of the van, the doors were slammed and the front door was soon shut as well.

  "Oh, fuck." Tristan muttered.

  The driver slammed on the brakes.

  "Someone's back there?" Somebody asked nervously.

  Tristan breathed a sigh of relief. It was some naïve kid just trying to hijack a car.

  The driver turned around to peek through the barbed wire separating the back from the front seats.

  "528?" He asked in surprise.

  "510." Tristan growled. "What are you doing?"

  "Going to find Vada." Christian replied coolly.

  At this, Tristan's face grew even grimmer. "How do you know her?"

  Christian looked a bit guilty. "I'm her breeding partner. I'm rather attached to her." And, taking a look at Tristan's rage. "As a friend."

  "Oh."

  "You want to come up to the front seat? They've taken her back to the original Freak Museum." Christian explained wearily.

  "You know, that would be great." Tristan got out of the back and sat in the front. "To Wyoming."

   "Explain." Max demanded, turning to face their new passenger and glaring at them.

  "Tristan's stupid plan screwed up and White threw us into the back of a van with Vada, and she said that they wouldn't leave the bait at Rawlings and then they took her away and I got out of my chains and figured out her DNA coding and Tristan doesn't want anyone to know because he wants her all to himself." Matt explained quickly, running out of breath.

  Alec slammed on the brakes.

  "Who are they? Who are her parents?" Alec demanded.

  Matt's eyes widened and he swallowed thickly. "You promise not to freak out?"

  Max and Alec simultaneously rolled their eyes and then nodded.

  "Her father is.. X5-313437512494." Matt said slowly.

  Alec's eyes began to fill with tears.

  "And her mother?" Max asked breathlessly. "Who is her mother?"

  "X5-332960073452." Matt squeaked.

  Max's eyes widened, looking at Alec, and then looking back at Matt.

  "In other words, X5-494 and X5-452 are her parents. _You_ are her parents." Matt took a deep breath. "But I wouldn't just tell her upon first meeting. We have to get her out of there."

  Alec turned around and began to drive again, with a silent command for quiet.

  Max slowly turned around, too, and adjusted her seatbelt. Vada was her daughter.


	11. So Pure

   "Alec?"

  "Yes, Max?"

  "Why don't you say something?"

  "What is there to say?"

  "I, uh, I really don't know." 

  Alec pulled his seat back up. Matt was sleeping in the backseat, and Max--- Well, they had planned on taking turns for night watch, but they both couldn't sleep.

  "All I know is that I'm glad we know who her parents are. I didn't want to search the country for them." Alec looked out the window, not willing to meet Max's eyes.

  "You would have done that?" Max stared at him with her wide, curious and somewhat sad eyes. "You would have done that for her?"

  Alec shot Max a dirty look. "I would have done _anything_ for her."

  Max swallowed the lump in her throat. "What does that make us, then?"

  Alec's eyes, full of anger and hurt, appraised Max's entire body. "That makes us the unwilling donors to a freak experiment by Manticore. We can explain the whole thing to.." He gulped. "_Logan_, OC and Joshua, but for everyone else, she's your sister."

  "Oh." Max shifted face the window.

  Alec groaned, intertwining his fingers and making them into some sort of headrest. "God, Max. Just because Manticore decides to play God and make us parents of this kid you don't know doesn't mean we have to have any relationship. Vada knows damn well that everyone in the X6 project is an unwilling partner in this messed-up DNA unit."

  Max's attitude came back for the first time. She glared at Alec. "Lord, Alec. I was just trying to make the process as normal as usual."

  Alec looked like he was going to say something, but decided against it. "Hey, you!"

  Matt sat up groggily.

  "Grab a Coke and we're on our way." 

  "You know, you're not as bad as you think you are." Vada muttered as the remaining X7s strapped her down to a chair.

  White just glared at her and went about his business. He brushed past her, looking for something, and when he couldn't find it, was equally frustrated.

  "I know you take those pills."

  White froze, as did the X7s who were her guards.

  Vada could hear some of the thoughts going through their computerized minds.

  "Weakness. Leader has a weakness."

  "Weaknesses in a team need to be gotten rid of."

  "A weakness needs to be killed off."

  "Terminate the weakness."

  Vada grinned at him. "In a way, I'm the perfect soldier. I have a few strands of X7 DNA. I know what's going through your head. You know that you're about to be killed. I just have to say the word. Or rather, think it."

  White's eyes widened with fear and that's how Ames White would die- Showing the ounce of vulnerability that lived inside of him.

  _Go._

  Vada shut her eyes and let the dirty business happen. She winced when she heard a crunch. 

  When she opened her eyes, there were three X7s staring at her.

   "Who is our leader now?"

   She blinked. "I am."

  Alec stopped a block away from the abandoned Manticore facility.

  "Are you all prepared for this?" He asked a few minutes before as he parked their car under the trees.

  Max and Matt nodded numbly, but it was a shared emotion and a somewhat obvious fact. All three of them weren't prepared to go back. Not even for her.

  "Oh, shit." Tristan muttered.

  "What?" His twin whispered. 

  "It's them. They'll think I've chickened out." Tristan hissed in response.

  Christian looked at him skeptically. There were more reasons behind Tristan's fear, and it was all cowardice.

  "You bastard." Christian whispered in revelation, his eyes narrowing as the tiny strand of X7 DNA that was in him figured out Tristan's logic.

  "You've seen the girl, you've had sex with her!" Tristan was pleading now.

  "No, I haven't. Because I know not to take advantage of them like that, and _I_ was on the inside!" Christian groaned in frustration.

  Max's head snapped around to see what was going on. She narrowed her eyes and spotted a white van in the distance.

  "We're being watched." Max announced. Alec just glared at her, but he nodded at Matt in a very.. Commanding Officer sort of way.

  "You two stick together. We'll meet up later." 

  Max rolled her eyes but started walking anyway.

  "Well, well, well. Look what bastard wanted to come out and play with Vada today." Alec drawled as he glared at the two blondes.

  "It's him." The other of them said. They weren't identical but they definitely had the same father.

  "Kid, you looking for Vada?" Alec asked, raising his eyebrows.

  He nodded.

  "Go join the brunette woman and guy. Tell them Alec sent you." Alec watched as the blonde took a hasty exit. "And about you."

  Tristan stood up, hoping his confidence would return. 

  "You stay away from my daughter after we get her out of here."

  Alec met up with the rest of them, a sheepish Tristan trailing him.

  "Okay, Max, you.."

  "Christian."

  "Max, Christian, we're going to get some of the equipment back in the van, you two are the base and we're going in."

  Half an hour later, Tristan, Max, Alec, Matt and Christian were testing out their equipment.

  "Almost pre-Pulse, this crap." Alec muttered. "Fall out."

  Max watched with fascination as the two X6s obeyed. It was extraordinary.

  "It's about time you three showed up. Thought I'd have to be at this old base with these chicas for years."

  Vada's drawl made Alec turn around and run. He hugged her and spun her around, they started to laugh and he hugged her once more, smoothing her hair and kissing the top of her head. They danced around, like they hadn't seen each other in years, and he was crooning 'Ten Minutes Ago'.

  Matt cocked his head to one side, crossing his arms. "He's making up for lost time."

  "Yeah." Tristan muttered.

  Matt shot Tristan a look. "He deserves that much. She deserves it."

  "Yeah."


	12. There's A Bit To Sort Out

  "We got her." Christian whispered into his headpiece.

  His voice crackled on the speaker and Matt watched as Max froze.

  "What's wrong with you?"

  Alec's voice crackled over. "Max, I don't think now is the time to tell her."

  Max nodded, unable to speak.

  "I said…"

  "I know what you said, Matt!" Max snapped.

  "Move out, Max." Alec chuckled. She was nervous.

  Vada's head snapped up from where she had been explaining to Christian about the X7s. "You got my sister down here?"

  Alec bit his lip, and Tristan nodded.

  "Is there something you're not telling me?" Vada asked, raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms.

  "You know what, Matt? I'm going out there. I can do this." Max took a deep breath. 

  Matt nodded. "She's a little intimidating at first, but she's still pretty cool."

  "I can do this!" Max squeaked hopefully.

  "Yes, you can!"

  "See, Vada, we found out who your parents are." Alec said first, taking a deep breath. "Well, actually.."

  Matt showed up. "I did. I did the research."

  Vada's face lit up as she smiled and ran to hug her friend. "Who are they then?"

  Tristan, snapping through gritted teeth, "Matt.. You can't tell her."

  Vada whirled around. "Why?"

  "Vada, I'm your father." Alec offered automatically.

  "Tristan, it seems as if you knew this before the rest of them." Vada suggested suspiciously, her eyes narrowing.

  "He did." Christian told her, shooting a smug smile at his twin.

  "When did you guys find out?" Vada demanded, raising her eyebrows even higher.

  "I told Max and Alec today." Matt said, stepping back with his arms raised in a forfeiting position.

  "And I figured it out today." Christian muttered.

  Vada's eyes snapped back to Tristan, who was looking veeeeeeeeeeery guilty.

  "I cannot believe you!" She went in and slapped him.

  "Oh, she's going to beat 'im." Christian muttered.

  "But he's got an extra year on her." Matt whispered.

  "But he pulls his punches." Christian explained.

  "Stupid! He should never let a girl get in the way!" Matt hissed.

  "But that's not just any girl over there."

  Max decided her spot, hidden and unknown, was best at the moment. Maybe this was the type of girl that attacked strangers who snuck up on her.

  And she was doing a damn good job on this Tristan jerk. Max knew that Alec was holding back the urge to yell, "That's my girl!"

  Max heard another kick and the other males just oohed.

  She smirked. Her daughter had gone for his groin.

  "You know what? You can all go to hell, all of you. Thank you for showing up Dad—Alec. Matt, thanks for doing the information. Christian, thanks for escaping into the dirty real world. I need to let off some steam." 

  And there were footsteps- More than one pair. They were getting closer and closer and---

  "Oh, sorry." Vada whispered before storming off, a small legion of X7s on her tail.

  "Hi, I'm Max. I'm your mom." Max whispered to herself, going to go check on the boys.

  "What happened back here?" Max demanded, crossing her arms.

  "Max, in case you haven't noticed, we're X series _males_. We're not good with this whole heart-to-heart stuff." Alec explained, shooting her a sheepish glance.

  "It's not like I know the girl!" Max whined. "And this is one of those millions of times I have to bail your ass out of some----"

  "Why do you have incorporate my ass in every single complaint against me? I know that it is one of the best asses you have ever seen, but---" Alec looked off, chuckling 'modestly'.

  "You know what the key to heart-to-heart conversations is? Keeping your mind out of the gutter." Max hissed.

  "You're afraid!" Alec accused her.

  Max's eyes widened. "Why would you think that?"

  "You're afraid she won't like you!" Alec started to look smug.

  "I haven't had one conversation with the girl. You've been her surrogate!" Max explained in some sort of whine.

  "She's a people person." Matt reminded her.

  "She won me over, didn't she?" Christian asked.

  "What makes you so important?" Max snapped.

  "I'm the asshole CO who kidnapped her." Christian admitted.

  "Well, Max, I guess I'm the one who has to save your ass this time." Alec muttered, rolling his eyes and brushing past her.

  Max grabbed him by the arm and smiled. "You've saved my ass more than once. And, by the way, you _do_ have a cute ass."


	13. And Then It Becomes Apparent...

  "Vada." Alec murmured.

  She turned around with her X7s. They shot him dirty looks. Her hands were on her hips and she was still in camouflage.

  "You hate gray!" Alec commented, noticing it for the first time.

  "I hate camo, too. Brings back bad memories. But I didn't exactly have options, you know?" She cocked her head to one side. "I guess I just went AWOL."

  Alec tsked. "He deserved it."

  Vada shook her head sadly. "You were right, Daddy."

  Alec flinched slightly. "Not ready for the title quite yet, Vada."

  Vada chuckled uncomfortably. "Yeah, that's right."

  He motioned with his hand to come over. "Come on, you know you want it."

  Vada grinned. She let him put his arm around her shoulder and they walked to the luxury SUV.

  "Hey, you assholes, get in the car!" Alec shouted as he slammed the door behind Vada. He smiled at Max understandingly. "Take the van, okay, 2?"

  She grinned at him gratefully and slammed the door of the van behind her.

  "So, who is she?" Vada asked finally, looking over at her.. Father. It sort of just hit her that the man driving the car was her father.

  "Who is who? My latest girlfriend, my best gal pal, my sister, my mother?" He joked like it was some sort of question he could answer.. A sort of question he could answer with a smile.

  "My mother."

  Alec slammed on the brakes.

  "I take it we won't be discussing her today on Messed-Up Transgenic families." Vada murmured, leaning on the armrest built into the door, and sighing heavily.

  Original Cindy just sat there, her jaw collecting dust.

  "Do you guys have any so.." Matt trailed off and Max pointed to the fridge.

  "So I'm the mother of this kid that doesn't even know me and she's been lied to even more than us X5s." Max whispered. "And how am I going to tell Logan?"

  "How did you explain taking care of Alec?" She asked.

  "I'm going to tell him that there's an annoying X5 who won't leave me alone and shouldn't be out in the real world without a chaperone?" Max offered, confused.

  OC shot her a look. "No, you're going to tell him that because of Manticore, you have another screwed-up transgenic that you need to take care of."

  "Except this one is my child!" Max hissed.

  "And Alec is the father of her." OC retorted. "Are you even ready to meet this kid?"

  "I've heard about her. Seems alright. She's got good instincts. Kicked this asshole in the balls and brainwashed X7s and did something with White." Max began, a smile growing on her face. "She sounds so cool. But I just don't think I'm ready for it."

  "Bip, bip, bip, people. There are packages to deliver, and not enough people to deliver them!" Normal shouted.

  "Max." Alec said, tapping her on the shoulder. Max turned around.

  "Where is she?" Max asked, trying to keep her cool.

  "Matt is taking care of her in my apartment." Alec explained coolly. "But it's not really her I want to talk about."

  Max knew what he meant.

  "When are you going to tell Logan, when are you going to talk to her? She wants to meet you." Alec soon began to ramble, something about her having Max's eyes and the bridge of his nose or something like that.

  "Alec, hold your horses." Max interrupted as soon as he took another breath. "I don't think I'm ready for this."

  Alec was definitely confused. "Ready for what? Buying her first photo session, seeing her dance on point, introducing her to Logan, what?"

  Max took a deep breath and brushed past him. "I'm not ready for this motherhood shit. You have a definite connection to her and I'm just this enigma that you've talked about."

  "Hot run." Normal tossed her a package and she biked out of Jam Pony.

  "Damn." Alec muttered, taking the next package and heading for Sector Three.

  "Brought you a treat, Princess." Alec whispered, covering Vada's eyes.

  "Dad—Alec!" Vada exclaimed, turning around and facing her young father, his arm behind his back. "What is it?"

  He pulled out a small jewel case. "Ten Minutes Ago, Moonlight Sonata, Send In the Clowns, Swan Lake, the Sweetest Sounds, Jump Jive and Wail, Unexpected Song, Elaborate Lives, My Strongest Suit, Baby Grand, Got the World On A String, One Sweet Day and Autumn In New York. Burned them myself at Logan's."

  Vada clapped her hands and squealed. "You are a god."

  "Always thought so myself. Don't wear it out, okay?" Alec grinned. "I'm going down to the Crash. Be good."

  "Can't I go?" Vada asked pleadingly, hugging him from behind.

  "No, Vada."

  "Please?"

  "No, Vada."

  "I won't drink."

  "No, Vada."

  "I won't pick up guys."

  "No, Vada."

  "I won't talk to my mother."

  Alec turned around in the hallway outside his apartment, puzzled. "How did you—I mean, how did you figure out that.."

  "You brought me a distraction." She shrugged. "I guess I just put two and two together."

  Alec bit his lip. "Okay. Don't drink, don't dress too provocatively, don't pick up guys and most of all, don't talk to.. Her. She really isn't.. She just isn't.."

  "She's not up to dealing with me quite yet. I get it." Vada squealed once more and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Dad—Alec."

  Max saw Alec come in with some mystery girl on his arm, and he was whispering to her, in a very dark manner.

  But she was whisked away by some guy before he could finish and Alec shook his head in a frustrated manner.

  "Boo, is that your?" OC didn't even have to finish.

  "VADA!" Alec shouted, being heard by everyone but the girl in question.

  "She sounds like you in the heat." OC commented, cocking her head to one side.

  "VADA MARIE SOMETHING!" Alec continued to shout.

  "Vada Marie?" OC asked, raising an eyebrow and facing her friend.

  "I like Marie." Max whispered.

  "Looks like Alec is playing a very good dad." OC continued to talk, and Max wasn't paying attention, just watching her daughter dance and seeing Alec have a cow over it.

  A demure smile spread across Max's face. Alec was prepared to beat the guy up, and Vada pulled him aside, probably reminding him that if the situation called for violence, she could handle it.

  "Independent." OC said finally. "It's a good thing."

  "Yeah. It is." Max agreed, standing up abruptly. "I'm going to turn in, okay, OC?"

  Her roommate nodded. "He raised her good, Max."

  Max took a final look out onto the dance floor. Alec was following them around now. "Yeah, he did."

  Alec leaned back onto his couch, glad that Vada had finally turned the damn CD off and she was finally asleep. He wasn't going to blink as long as she was in potential danger.

  He closed his eyes, sighed, and leaned back further, just to make himself a little more comfortable. The attempt wasn't working. With his eyes still closed, he ran his hands through his hair in frustration, anger, hurt. All three emotions were flowing through his veins along with his transgenic blood. He sat up and opened his eyes and there she was. Just standing there.

  "Daddy?" She asked in a weak voice. He didn't flinch for the first time.

  Instead, he slung his legs onto the couch, patting them invitingly. She was over there in half a second flat, pulling a blanket over them and for just a moment, they had built up a false sense of security.

  Max found herself explaining to Logan her feelings about this new daughter of hers, and though she held back on what other emotions were battling inside of her, she was pretty sure he knew.

  "What should I do, Logan?" Max whispered as she stood up. "I mean, this is possibly your stepdaughter. After all, those scientists that Alec found.."

  "Are no closer to a cure than this daughter of yours is." Logan finished for her. "I advise that you go and talk to her. You're never going to find a moment when you'll be completely comfortable with the facts. You might as well try to build some sort of relationship with her."

  Max nodded. "Why are you always right?"

  "Comes with old age and money, I suppose." Logan replied quickly. He sighed. "Go on."


	14. There's A Bit Too Much For Max To Handle

A/N: Does Alec have a last name? I didn't think so, but if he does, somebody tell me, please.

  Max stood outside Alec's apartment door, listening to the murmurs with her transgenic ear.

  "Daddy?" Vada whispered.

  "Yes, Vada Marie?" Alec asked sleepily, thinking she would ask him silly drunken questions like why the sky was blue or the grass green or something.

  "Why doesn't she want me?" 

  Alec wanted to sit up abruptly, but Vada was weighing him down on purpose.

  "Why doesn't who want you, honey?" Alec sort of squeaked.

  "Mommy, silly." Vada answered as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.

  Max nearly choked on the lump in her throat. This was going to be quite a lie Alec needed to come up with.

  Alec took a deep breath, then he sighed and took another deep breath. "It's not that your mommy doesn't want you, but see, your mommy's life is a bit more difficult than mine."

  Max wanted to giggle every time he said 'mommy'.

  "See, your mother is this beautiful, beautiful woman. She used to be a cat burglar because Normal, our boss, doesn't pay worth a shit. She tried robbing this one place at Foggle Towers, which no longer exists because of her, and the owner ended up catching her and than asking her for a favor. You know Eyes Only?"

  Vada must have nodded, because Alec continued. "Well, that's him. Your mom ended up working for him, and they began to fall in love. But then your mom saw an opportunity to take down Manticore, so she tried. Logan thought she was dead, but it turns out Manticore kidnapped her and gave her a virus targeted for Logan's DNA because he thought she was dead and was stirring up trouble. Now, your mom and I met because Manticore thought we'd be perfect together. I thought so, too, for a while, until.. Well, never mind. Joshua and I helped Max break out and I tried to kill Asha.."

  "Who's Asha?"

  "Never mind. So I tried to kill Logan, but turns out that your mom's kisses do enough for him."

  "They can't touch?"

  "No."

  "That's sad."

  "Boo-hoo. Anyway, so White, you know who he is, ended up capturing me and telling me to capture three transgenics and bring back their barcodes as proof, and he launched this bomb in my neck that if your mother hadn't paid half of her get-rid-of-the-Virus money would have killed me. I murdered one freak and beat up this other X, skinning him but I couldn't take your mother because.."

  "We all know why, Daddy."

  "So now I've been working at Jam Pony and trying to get Max and Logan back together."

  "Yeah, right."

  "But see, your mom has this family that escaped with her in '09 and while my twin was among them, he's dead and her twin, Sam, is not."

  "Did they ever make a twin of me, Daddy?"

  "That they did, Vada Marie, but they killed her." _More like made me kill her with my bare hands to let me get over Rachel._ "Anyway, mommy's got this life that won't slow down for a kid Manticore created."

  "Oh."

  Max softly slid down. She didn't know Alec knew this much about her.

  "Remind me how she and I look so much alike again, Daddy."

  Alec really didn't want to do that. There was too much of Max in Vada to make any look into Vada's eyes comfortable.

  But it was a wish of Vada's, and a wish he felt he needed to fulfill.

  He reached out gently, gliding one of his fingers under one of her well-plucked eyebrows. "Those are her eyebrows."

  "Uh-huh."

  His finger traced the shape of her eyes. "Those are her eyes."

  Vada shifted her position, falling asleep. "Yeah…"

  He lightly ran two fingers over her nose. "It may be her nose, but the bridge is mine."

  He guided one finger over her lips. "The upper lip is mine, and the bottom lip is hers."

  He slowly extracted himself from under his daughter's body. "You've got her form and my creativity, Vada Marie."

  He pulled the blanket over her and kissed her forehead gently. "Sweet dreams, honey."

  Max stood up quickly. Alec was probably going to bed, and now—

  The door opened and Alec snuck out.

  "Max, what are you doing here?" He whispered loudly.

  "Just.." Max trailed off, not really remembering.

  Alec chuckled softly, looking at Max, then the ground, and then Max again. "She's beautiful, Max."

  Max didn't meet his gaze. "Who?"

  _You know perfectly damn well who._ "Our daughter."

  Max didn't say anything.

  "Maybe I'm making up for all those times I've ever screwed up and you've been there." Alec began, looking up at her once more. She didn't respond. "Or maybe.. God, Max, she's beautiful."

  Max whimpered softly.

  "She's got your eyes, your eyebrows, your nose, but the bridge of mine, she's got your body, your attitude, your bottom lip, my upper lip.. She dances so well and you should see her when her eyes light up.." Alec trailed off, a sweet smile gracing his features.

  "Alec, don't." Max managed to say.

  He shot her a grim and dirty look. She turned away.

  "Don't what, Max?" He demanded in a harsh, quiet tone. "Don't tell you how wonderful our daughter is? Don't tell you that she misses you, even though she never met you? Don't tell her how I had to explain why you didn't want to meet her? Don't figure out that you don't want her because you don't want to share something with _me_? I've already done that. You've already heard. When you decide that our little girl, growing as she may be, makes it onto your list of priorities, you can come back. But until then, you aren't prepared for this."

  Max nodded. She knew he was right.

  Alec gave her a hug and went back into his apartment.

  Max took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.

  "Daddy?"

  Max froze.

  The girl was getting up and heading for the door.

  What if she opened it?

  "In here, Vada."

  "Oh, okay."

  Max took off before sighing heavily. That was close.

  She didn't know what was wrong with her. Normally, Alec would be the one running and she'd be the one mopping up the tears.

  She shook her head sadly as she swung a leg over her Ninja. Fatherhood really does change a guy.


	15. But She Gets Over It..

  Alec looked around Jam Pony for Max. "OC, where's your boo?"

  OC raised an eyebrow and rolled her eyes. "Max went to some sector, she wouldn't specify, and said she'd be a while."

  Alec scowled. Both he and OC knew that anything Max put her mind to would get done in three seconds.

  "Hot run, Monty Cora." Normal handed him a package and Alec rolled his eyes, climbing onto his bike.

  Where could she be?

  Max smiled as she handed yet another package full of stolen parts to Alec's neighbor. She had taken it upon herself to deliver this particular package, considering that her daughter was downstairs.

  She wheeled her bike down the stairs and left it leaning against a bit of the wall next to Alec's door. She set it there lightly and yet, the door swung open.

  "Who are you? Did Daddy get you pregnant? What do you know? How late are you? It's probably just a hangover." Vada trailed on and on and on, and Max studied her face.

  Alec was right.

  She hated it when he was.

  "I wouldn't let Alec touch me with a ten-foot-pole that could cure the Virus." Max managed to say, as soon as her PMS-like demeanor returned.

  Vada froze, but she looked both ways. "You better wheel that in. It'll get swiped, otherwise."

  She turned around and walked further into the eyesore Alec called home.

  "I'll take that as an invitation to come in, then." Max whispered, grabbing her bike.

  "Alec's a pain in the ass, isn't he?"

  "Excuse me, what?" Max hadn't even started to sit down or begin uncomfortable silence.

  "Oh, yeah, my manners. Want something to drink?" Vada offered, heading for the kitchenette.

  "Nah. I'm not even supposed to be here…"

  "Working?"

  "Yeah."

  "Daddy checks on me all the time. A pain in the ass, isn't he?" Vada propped herself up on the dirty counter.

  "Yeah." Max found herself whispering.

  Vada stared at her a bit. 

  "I heard you guys arguing yesterday." Vada took a sip of her drink.

  "Is that beer?" Max asked, raising her eyebrows.

  "Yeah, right. With Alec for my father?" Vada rolled her eyes. "He got rid of his alcohol as soon as I came along and won't let me drink at the Crash either."

  "Hypocrite." Max snorted.

  Vada looked at her oddly.

  "He practically lives at the bar." Max explained.

  "I thought so. I mean, when he ran into me at the strip club in NYC.." Vada trailed off. "I guess since you're my mother you didn't exactly want to hear that."

  Max's jaw dropped. "Even if you were just my sister I wouldn't want to hear that!"

  Vada looked guilty. "I needed cash."

  "You could have gotten Alec." Max tried to take on the role of the concerned mother.

  Vada shot her a look. "You know that he can hardly support himself without stealing. He'd have to be a pro cat burglar and risk exposure to take care of three people."

  "Three?" Max asked, looking her daughter up and down. "You look like a single person to me."

  Vada didn't meet Max's eyes. "I wasn't."

  Max nodded.

  "God, Mo---Max, he didn't even treat me that good. I was basically told I couldn't survive without anyone and I guess they're right." Vada started crying and there were thousands of horrible pictures going through Max's mind about her daughter.

  Slowly, but steadily, Max made her way to the kitchenette, lightly taking Vada into her arms. There, though they both wouldn't have admitted it, Vada felt right. She fit.

  Alec pedaled hard to get back to his apartment. He hated leaving Vada alone since Matt had to do something with the X7s in order not to lead the Familiars to Vada.

  He threw his bike down, knowing that would alert her automatically. But when he lightly opened the door, the sight before him seemed unbelievable.

  Max was hugging Vada, and Vada was crying into Max's shoulder. Max's back was to him, and Vada was blinded by tears, so they couldn't see him, but still..

  Alec softly stepped back. They needed to have their moment in their memories as theirs and theirs alone. After all, he and Vada had so many.

  Max rushed into Jam Pony, trying to find him. He was near the lockers and she rushed up to him excitedly.

  "I saw her. I saw her up close and talked to her. She's so beautiful and so witty and so.." Max noticed a small smile spreading on Alec's face, even though he wasn't looking at her. "So ours."

  That really grabbed his attention. "Ours?"

  Max nodded with a smile. "I know that things haven't been good between us.."

  ---"More like a roller coaster."

  "And we haven't had much to share.."

  ---"Except our entire theories in life and half of a past."

  "And, well, this girl, this daughter, she might change that."

  ---"That means, don't get your hopes up, Alec. I'm being forced to like you."

  "Will you just shut up?"

  "Sure."

  "That isn't shutting up."

  "It takes two people to have a conversation."

  "I hate you!"

  "You need to like me."

  "Why?"

  "I don't know. You were the one who said it."

  Max looked back at him, first shooting him a dirty look, and then bursting out into something Alec had never heard out of Max. Giggles.

  "I know why I said it.." Max stopped. "Wait, you were the once that said I'm forced to like you."

  "Because?" Alec gestured with his hands, and Max rolled her eyes.

  "Because of our daughter, because of Manticore, and because fighting it would be too hard." Max recited in a sing-song voice.

  Alec raised his left eyebrow with a look of doubt.

  "Fighting the chemistry. We could be good friends if we tried…"

  ---"You tried.."

  "To take each other's jokes.."

  ---"My jokes…"

  "A little less seriously." Max snapped finally, sick of his interrupting.

  He glared at her.

  "Okay, okay! I'll lighten up." Max rolled her eyes and slid her arm into the crook of Alec's. "You know, Logan and I didn't get along too well, either."

  "That gives me hope." Alec whispered.

  "It shouldn't." Max murmured.

  "Where do you two think you're going?" Normal asked as they began walking out of Jam Pony.

  "To get our bikes." Max answered automatically.

  "To train for my next Monty Cora match." Alec added.

  "No." Max hissed with a disapproving scowl.

  "Just trust me." Alec mouthed.

  "Well, go on, get cracking!" Normal shouted after them.

  Alec smirked and Max slapped his arm playfully.

  "Something is going on with those two." OC whispered.

  "Definitely." Sketchy said with a look of skepticism.

  Alec and Max walked up the stairs, Max using Alec as some sort of support system because she was laughing so hard. Alec was just smiling at her or joking with this adoring grin.

  "Ain't this picturesque?" Matt drawled in a Southern voice, standing up from where he had been leaning. "Where's Vada?"

  Max stopped laughing and the smile disappeared from Alec's face.

  "You don't know?" Matt demanded worriedly.

  "Find all the dance studios in the neighborhood." Alec said automatically.

  "I'll call Logan." Max offered, putting her hand out for Alec's key. 

  Alec and Matt flinched. Alec reached into the pocket of his leather jacket and handed her the key.

  "I should really get my own. With Vada living here and all." Max shouted as she headed inside.

  Alec nodded and started pacing.

  "I don't like that guy, either." Matt muttered finally.

  "I've tried to like him. I have. Him being Max's.. And all." Alec stopped and glanced at Matt, his face looking pitiful. "But.. I just can't."

  Matt nodded. "He's Tristan. The provider that wants her to himself."

  "Hey, Logan's not selfish." Alec snapped defensively. "He is one of the most unselfish people I've ever met. Max is one of those people that make him happy. The guy deserves a little happiness."

  "Hold on," Max whispered.

  Logan replied softly, and he could tell she was eavesdropping. He pulled out a Pre-Pulse device that was supposed to help old people hear better.

  "Hey, Logan's not selfish. He is one of the most unselfish people I've ever met. Max is one of those people that make him happy. The guy deserves a little happiness."

  It was Alec. Both Max and Logan were both surprised. Logan pulled the little speaker off the phone.

  "He's sweet. He really is." Max said after a moment and they continued to talk.

  "But don't you deserve it, too?" Matt demanded in a low voice.

  "I've got Vada. She's enough." Alec lied.

  "But Vada's not Max. As much as you make Vada a distraction, you can't get your mind off of Max! We X6s can read minds a bit, you know?"

  "Thanks, Logan. Bye." Max slipped the phone back into it's cradle and headed towards the door.

  She stopped when she heard Alec's voice again.

  "I told you!"

  "I told you, Logan deserves his bit of happiness. No matter how much Max makes me feel, I can't take that from him! It would be like somebody stealing Vada from me! Even if I did have feelings for Max, I'm not going to do anything about the whole Max and Logan situation. They both need each other. If Logan can find someone else that can take care of him and care for him as much as Max does, then maybe the situation will change. But now, all I can do is admire from afar!"

  Matt rolled his eyes. "Alec, weren't you the one who told Vada to go out and get what you want?"

  Alec sighed. "There's this saying. Those who can't, teach."

  Max took in the info and stomped to let them know she was coming.

  "Hey, Alec." She chirped with a grin. "There's only one studio in this Sector. Come on. Matt, you stay here just in case she comes back."

  She slipped her arm back into the nook of his and smiled. The words she said to Logan on the phone came back to her.

_     "He's sweet. He really is."_


	16. And It Becomes A Happy, Normal Family..

  "Be good." Max warned.

  "I will." Vada said in a whining tone.

  "I was talking to your father." Max reminded her.

  "What?" Alec called from the other room.

  Vada and Max started laughing. Vada pinned up a stray strand of hair and adjusted with her necklace and smoothed her dress.

  Max cocked her head to one side. "Now, how did you become so aristocratic with Alec and I as your parents?"

  Vada whirled around to face her mother. The faraway look in her eyes told Max to drop the subject.

  "Vada, dahling, and you, Maxine, shall we?" Alec asked in a stuffy voice, appearing in the living room wearing, of all things, a tuxedo.

  Vada and Max looked at each other and then burst out into giggles.

  "I thought I looked good." Alec sniffed insecurely.

  "Yes, (giggle) Daddy, you do." Vada stood up properly, with the goofiest grin on her face. "You look very good."

  "You do." Max whispered.

  "What is this silly function we're going to, anyway?" Alec asked automatically, barely hearing Max's comment.

  "The anniversary party of Logan's cousin. I was invited specifically." Max answered, just realizing she had lost her purse.

  "Why, so sitting next to Logan without touching him wouldn't seem so suspicious?" Alec muttered, slowly sneaking a purse off of his counter.

  Max turned around and snatched the purse out of his hand. "Yes, for your information."

  "Enhanced hearing.. Remember.." Alec whispered as he smoothed out the velvet straps of Vada's dress and tucked a stray hand of her hair behind her hair.

  She, in turn, faced him, straightening out his tousled hair.

  "Remember, Vada, you're Max's cousin and I'm her escort. You came through from New York and Max promised her aunt that she'd take care of you." Alec reminded Vada in a warning voice. _No pranks._

  "Come on, you two." Max called over her shoulder impatiently.

  "What are we taking, the Ninja?" Vada drawled sarcastically, winking at Max.

  "Nope." Max whispered. "Alec, here are the keys."

  "To what?" Alec murmured, heading for the garage and finding his Baby- His beautiful red convertible with the white top cleaned to a sparkle.

  Vada and Max grinned at him. Max had gone to New York to get the car back from Tristan (Vada had just refused to see him, considering their history) and Vada had cleaned it up while Max and Alec were at work.

  "Did I ever tell you how much I love you both?" Alec asked as he opened the door for Max.

  Vada clambered into the back.

  "Nope."

  "Don't quite recall." Max added.

  "I love you both so much it would have made every creature at Manticore feel wanted and warm." Alec said as he carefully backed out.

  "That's a lot of love." Max murmured.

  "Even for two very vain women." Vada muttered.

  "Hey, vanity is a given when you are genetically created to look perfect." Alec reminded her and they shared a soft rumble of laughter.

   "Hey, Grandpa. You normally love to drive fast." Vada drawled from the backseat. Max glared at him.

  _You drove like a maniac with our daughter in the car?_

  Alec looked sheepish. "Sorry, but it's _Baby_."

  Max and Vada simultaneously rolled their eyes, sighed, and propped their heads up on their hands.

  "Genetics." Alec muttered.

  "Where are they?" Asha asked impatiently, removing her hands from her hips and pulling back the curtain once more.

  "Max needed more than one sector pass. I guess they had to do something." Logan explained, motioning for Asha to move away from the window.

  "Must be weird to meet your girlfriend's daughter." Asha commented.

  "Well, it's just another weird experiment from the furry friends farm," Asha winced at the reference, "But at least they're holding themselves responsible for her."

  "Big change in Alec." Asha muttered.

  "Yeah. He's matured so much. He came down to my apartment just to burn a CD for her. She's a dancer, you know." Logan told her as they headed back into the foyer of the large house.

  "A girly freak.." Asha whispered under her breath.

  "But Max tells so many stories about how she can kick Alec's ass in a heartbeat. But, then, Alec lets her." Logan kept going on about Max, and to Asha, it began to get boring.

  It began drizzling lightly and Asha sighed. Yet another boring party when the subject is always _Max_.

  "Damn the rain." Alec muttered. Vada started playing with the hair at the nape of his neck, making sure it covered his barcode in a stylish manner. She herself had pulled up her hair into elegant twists, half-up and half-down.

  "It'll be over soon." Max assured him, feeling more like Alec's mother than Vada's at the moment.

  "Yeah, it's probably not even in Portland." Vada added, having the feeling she was talking to a three-year-old.

  "Damn the rain, eh?" Somebody stuffy was saying loudly, as if it were some sort of joke. Well, the joke was probably as old as time. "Don't know what the tourists are talking about. This is good old Oregon sunshine."

  "Fuck Oregon sunshine." Some girl muttered behind Asha, who was going to voice the same opinion.

  "If your father hadn't driven so slowly, we wouldn't have gotten wet." An almost annoyingly familiar female voice reminded the girl.

  "You were the one who got his damn car. I didn't even want you to go to New York."

  "Just because Tristan…"

  "Was using me for sex, doesn't mean my mother can go and get my father's car back from him."

  "Vada!"

  "Riiiight, the public thing."

  Asha turned around, noticing a girl, who looked remarkably like Alec and Max, standing there with her arms crossed, looking very bored. She shot Asha a sickly sweet smile once she realized Asha was looking.

  "Max, they've got some great stuff upstairs… Oh, hi, Asha." Alec stopped, his hand lightly resting on Vada's elbow and his other hand lightly pressing onto the small of Max's back.

  "_This_ is Asha?" Vada asked in a low whisper, ducking in front of Alec. Max leaned to the side.

  "Did you have your hopes up?" Max drawled in the same volume. But when a certain Eyes Only came along, she stood up to full height. Vada followed her example. "Logan?"

  "_This_ is Logan?" She whispered into her father's ear.

  "Did you have your hopes up?" Alec whispered back.

  All three transgenics stood up properly. Alec nudged Vada, who then proceeded to uncross her arms.

  "Logan, Asha, this is our," Alec lowered his voice, "Daughter. Vada Marie. Vada for short."

  "Marie?" Logan asked, cocking up an eyebrow.

  "I like that name." Max whispered.

  "Max, who is this lovely creature?" Logan's cousin's wife came around.

  "This is Vada Marie Whitman." Logan answered automatically. "Max's cousin."

  "Pleasure to meet you." Vada said softly with a smile, putting on a completely new face for this woman.

  "She's trained." Asha whispered to Logan.

  "She's Manticore." Alec mouthed proudly. _She's better than you'll ever be. Ha. Ha._

  "Weren't you under the name Natalia Christiansen?" She asked, her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

  Vada froze.

  "Shame, about that play of yours. Sparks of Love, wasn't it?" 

  "Sparks of Magic." Vada hissed through gritted teeth.

  "That Anthony Andrews was wonderful. People said he was dating one of the chorus girls, Natalia. Was that you?" 

  "Um.." Alec tried to interrupt, but she kept going on.

  "Shame about his death. Can you believe anyone who would be so disgusting as to blow up a National Landmark?"

  "No, not really.." Vada whispered, her eyes going out of focus.

  "How was it for you? You being his last girlfriend and all?"

  Vada closed her eyes for a moment, crossing her arms. She swallowed a lump in her throat. "You know what it was like? It was like going to rehearsal and seeing my boyfriend running out of an exploding boyfriend and dieing right before my eyes. And it was my fault."

  "Oh, you'll always feel like that.." The woman unconsciously was digging into Vada's soul, even though she was trying to make her feel better.

  Vada smiled weakly at the woman, tears in her eyes. "Excuse me, I'm going to go to the powder room."

  "Vada!" Max called after her. "I'll be right back."

  "Did I say something wrong?"

  "Hey, Vada!" Matt pulled her aside into a small nook.

  "What are you doing here?" Vada hissed, trying to pull her arm away.

  "I got them." Matt whispered. "Christian and I broke into Tristan's apartment and got them while he was dealing with Max."

  He glanced at her purse. "You, Alec and Max can split one bottle and put the other two in your purse without anyone noticing."

  "You are a god, Matt." Vada murmured. She opened the bottle really quick and grabbed a champagne glass off of a silver platter that was being held by a passing waiter.

  "You're not supposed to take those with alcohol." Matt reminded her and a short rich guy passed, unaware that a brunette girl had just placed a champagne glass on his bald, flat head.

  Vada and Matt's eyes scanned the room. "I'll go to the bathroom."

  "Good plan. I'll go catch up with Alec." Matt told her.

  "Remember, he's Alec Parker, a graduate of UC Berkley, with a major in classical music." Vada whispered.

  "Classic, ain't it?" Matt murmured with a half-grin.

  She shot him a glare and they both left the nook quickly.

  Vada swiftly made it into the bathroom, spilling the contents of the discreet white bottle onto the counter.

  Eighteen pills. Divided by three, it would equal six months of freedom from the barcode.

  She slid twelve back into the bottle, which was unlabeled. She took the first five pills in one gulp, hoping the pain wouldn't be too much to handle- Again.

  Max heard a groan from the bathroom. She could hear Asha closely behind her and she let the blonde woman go first.

  "Cramps.." Vada muttered as an excuse. "Thank God for Midol."

  "Vada, it's us." Max said simply. "What are you doing?"

  "Shit!" Vada hissed in a low tone, and Max could tell that it was taking her all of her Manticore training not to shriek in pain. Her hand was behind her neck, holding onto it for dear life.

  "What are these?" Asha asked, holding up an unlabeled white bottle.

  "Vada." Max demanded through gritted teeth.

  Vada turned around and removed her hand.

  Max looked at the bare skin. She even reached out and touched it.

  "How?" Max whispered.

  Vada took the last white pill, taking a bit of water with it.

  The skin glowed a bit, and then it looked normal once more.

  "Each pill erases tattoos for a month a piece. I heard about them when I was doing this small commercial for Sparks of Magic." Vada explained. "Tristan bought most of them up for me."

  She snatched the bottle from Asha, who looked taken aback at Vada's rudeness.

  "Take six. Much easier than airbrushing them off." Vada handed six pills to Max.

  "What?" Max was still confused.

  "They work. I took my last pill seven months ago, and since the big confusion, I haven't been able to have one." Vada explained. She poured the rest of the pills out, using the bottle as a glass. "No side effects. Matt and Tristan inspected them."

  Alec burst into the bathroom.

  "ALEC!" Max and Asha shouted.

  "Take six." Vada said. "Safe, X6-inspected. Gets rid of barcodes for six months. Trust me."

  Alec took them quickly and Max shot him a dirty look, following his example.

  "SHIT!" They chorused.

  "Shh!" Asha and Vada whispered.

  "Your skin is glowing. Good." Vada continued to say. "It's gone. All of it."

  Max admired the work in the mirror.

  "Less tedious than airbrushing." Alec commented.

  Max still fingered the skin on her neck softly. It was amazing to be free with such little effort.

  Asha looked at the three transgenics in worry.

  She knew she couldn't have handled it if it were her.


	17. But The Link That Connects Them Breaks T...

  "Max, I need to talk to you." Logan whispered.

  "Can it wait?" Max asked impatiently.

  "No." Logan grabbed her by her gloved wrist.

  "What is it, Logan?" Max demanded softly.

  He let go. "I've been thinking about this for a long time. Once we get rid of this virus, would you move in with me?"

  Max looked at him oddly.

  "I'd like things to go back to normal."

  _Normal. Riiiight._

  "I need to take a walk." Max said, waving him off and briskly exiting.

   "Can we go?" Vada whispered to Alec after the third hour of continuous boredom passed.

  "No, your mother won't let us."

  "Can't we swipe something?" Vada murmured in a soft whine.

  Alec looked at her. _No, your mother won't let us._

  She giggled, her telepathy thing sort of kicking in.

  "Are you two behaving?" Max asked as she returned from her 'walk'.

  "Very much so." Alec replied.

  "And it's boring." Vada added.

  "Well, come on, then. We don't have much time. The biggest part of the whole thing will be coming up soon and we don't have much time to swipe anything." Max grabbed her and Vada's purses, and they excused themselves from the table.

  "Max, have I ever told you how much I loved you?" Alec whispered excitedly.

  "Yes. Half the love needed to make all of Manticore feel wanted and warm." Max replied with a soft, sly smile.

  Max pulled a can of spray paint out of her purse- Miraculous invention, it was. It adapted to the color of the object, so anything would match instantly.

   "Oh, Anna, dear, my hair is just horrible." She whispered into the microphone hidden in the plant. "Do keep a look-out. Make sure no one's coming so I can touch up."

  Vada stifled a giggle and Max spritzed every camera in the room. Alec was working on the wirings and Vada was keeping watch.

  Suddenly, the lamps illuminating the room's valuables dimmed and Max grinned. Alec had done a good job.

  Max made a mad-dash to grab everything she could and headed for the closet Alec was huddled in. She opened the door, carefully placing everything in his arms and helping him out a back-door. She removed her silken gloves and stuffed them in her purse, along with the spray paint, a little diamond dancer for Vada, a beautiful miniature ebony piano knick-knack for Alec and a gorgeous piece for herself. She admired the diamond, knowing she wouldn't keep it, but the money it would earn them all would be.. Amazing.

  "Come on, Anna. I'm done." Max whispered.

  Vada grinned at her and they exited the room quickly.

  "Sorry, Logan. You know some of us have to work in public for a living." Vada said with a sickly sweet smile.

  "Vada Marie!" Max hissed, slapping her lightly on her forearm.

  Logan tried to grin. "That's alright, Max."

  "Toodles!" Vada chirped, that disgusting grin still on her face.

  "What took you guys so long?" Alec whispered as he pulled up.

  "_Your_ daughter was being rude." Max snapped in a low tone.

  "So all of a sudden she's _my_ daughter? I do believe she looks more like you than me." Alec reminded her.

  "Just drive, Daddy." Vada whined exasperatedly.

  "Okay, she's my daughter, too." Max joked with a smirk,

  "Oh, thanks."

  "My bedroom is getting girlier and girlier." Alec muttered as he and Max crept into Alec's bedroom, where their daughter laid fast asleep in her bed. "That was quite a mission."

  "Enough to knock an X6 out, that is." Max murmured. She looked around the room. It _was_ getting girly. The covers were now cream-colored and ruffly, and the place was actually tidy. Little trinkets were all over the dresser. "You should really get a bigger place."

  Alec chuckled bitterly. "Are you kidding me? This place is free and I can barely support myself, yet alone Vada."

  Max moved a few of the trinkets around, placing the tiny diamond dancer on the center of it. "You know, I don't think Logan would mind if.."

  Alec shot her a look. "Logan? The guy barely even likes Vada and she barely likes him. It would be like asking you if I could move her to Asha's."

  "I meant put her stuff in the guest room. Logan would understand.." Max trailed off, and she realized, quite unwillingly, that Alec was quite right.

  "Logan would understand if it were you and Zack's kid, or you and Ben, but no, Max. He hates me." Alec reminded her in a low tone. "And plus, moving her stuff to his place would make his place her home. Her home is not with him. It's wherever you or I am."

  "Well, once this Virus goes away, that will be her home!" Max exclaimed. "He asked me to move in with him."

  "So I have to sit through an hour of discomfort while I wait to see my daughter." Alec concluded, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes.

  Max stomped impatiently. "Like I haven't been through that?"

  She instantly wanted to take it back when a hurt look came upon his face.

  "It's been uncomfortable? Uncomfortable hanging out with me and Vada? Uncomfortable laughing, sharing jokes like only we could? Uncomfortable?" Alec didn't look her in the eye anymore. "Take her to Joshua's."

  "Alec, I didn't mean anything by that, it's just---" Max began, reaching out to touch him, but he turned away.

  "Just take her to Joshua's. I'm going.. I'm going somewhere." Alec muttered, stomping off.

  Max sat down on her daughter's bed with a heavy sigh. She saw her purse, the one she had looked through for the diamond dancer just now, and for the diamond she had sold this morning.

  There she found the miniature ebony piano. It was so shiny and smooth, and the accents were 24 karat gold, she could tell. The keys, made of diamonds and ebony, really played.

  She fingered it softly, putting it back in her purse. She started packing Vada's things and looked behind her shoulder at a sleeping Vada.

  _You are too much of your father's daughter._

  When Alec returned, his room was normal, except for the fact that it was clean. On the dresser, where Max had placed her beloved diamond dancer, was a different item.

  He looked at it oddly, not sure why it was there. He hit E-sharp, and sure enough, it played E-sharp.

  He turned it over, expecting to see some sort of trap from White's men. Instead, he saw a bolt of the red-and-white striped leather from his car. It was sort of dirty, but it was screaming Max's name.

  He hated it when they fought.

  "Are you sure Daddy let you take 'the Baby'?" Vada asked wearily. The girl was barely awake, seeing as Max woke her up from her nap.

  Max bit on her lip to keep from telling her to shut up. "He wanted me to take you to Joshua's until he can find a better place for the two of you."

 "What about you, Mommy?" Vada inquired softly, almost unconsciously.

  Max winced.

 "I'll be fine, Vada. I'll be fine."

  She hated it when they fought.


	18. A Nearly Fatal Miracle

  "We have unresolved issues, Max." Alec muttered, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her into a more secluded corner of Jam Pony.

  "What's going on with them?" Sketchy asked OC.

  "Vada." She replied.

  "Okay, you need to tell him the truth." Alec snapped the instant they were alone.

  "What?" Max asked confusedly.

  "You need to tell him the truth. You know why it's so god damn uncomfortable going to Logan's? Because of your god damn lie. As if things between me and Logan weren't fucked up already because of me being ordered to kill the guy because you couldn't, you come along and make it worse. I should have told him the fucking truth like I had planned. I'm ALREADY the bad guy. And as soon as I get into his good graces, you have to tell him a fucking lie and make me the bad guy again!"

  "Stop shouting at me!" Max protested. "It's not even about that!"

  "No," He agreed, "It's about your low opinion of me. It's low enough that I can move in on someone else's girl and not even feel bad about it. Fine, since you have SUCH a low opinion of me, I'll just have Matt take her over to my place when she wants to visit."

  Alec began walking off.

  "I thought things were good between us!" She shouted after him.

  He looked back at her and chuckled bitterly. "They were."

  "I hate it here." Vada pouted.

  "Little fella's little fella.. Don't feel bad." Joshua cooed. 

  "Yeah, make yourself useful." One of the leaders said, tossing her a gun. She gently put it down.

  "I don't do guns." She muttered in excuse.

  "What's wrong with you, anyways?" The guy asked her as she picked up the gun and put it back on the table.

  She sat down on a nearby stool. "You know my parents?"

  He nodded.

  "They're fighting again."

  "What this time?"

  "Where to put me. Apparently Max doesn't want me living with Alec anymore for some odd reason, and he took offense."

  "Naturally."

  "I mean, it started out as a simple conversation to get me and Dad more space and then.."

  "Logan?"

  "Yeah." Vada propped her chin up on both of her hands, frowning. "Nice guy and all, but my parents.."

  "Yeah."

  And the transgenic continued to polish each of the guns and they sat in silence.

  _The only one who fools Alec is Alec._

  "Daddy!" Vada exclaimed, jumping up from her stool to greet him. She hugged him tightly.

  "What's up, Princess?" He asked as he spun her around.

  "I hate it here. Not the people… Just.." Vada trailed off. "I want to be at home with you and Max."

  _I thought things were good between us.._

  "Well, Max and I have problems to solve." Alec said after a moment. "And I didn't come to talk about Max, I came to see you."

  "All there is to see is a highly depressed daughter." Vada muttered, glowering.

  "Hey, Alec! There's an X6 on your street that they're tracking!" Somebody shouted and Alec kissed Vada on the top of her head before running to his bike. 

  "Somebody call Max and I'll get an X5 on my way out of the city." He shouted over his shoulder.

  "God, will Cupid please get a clue?" Vada shouted at the ceiling and everyone shushed her.

  "VADA!" Alec shouted.

  "Coming!" She jumped off of her stool and grabbed a bike- Biggs' bike.

  Alec and Max had excellent chemistry- even in fighting. They were fending off the sector police as Vada barked orders to the highly confused X6.

  "We meet again, Vada." He whispered as he grabbed her waist.

  Vada nearly stopped, but instead, she sped up. "Go any lower and I might just throw you off myself, Tris."

  "But you wouldn't do that really, now, would you?" He shouted over the rev of the engine.

  "Try me."

  "This is NOT fair. He can NOT live here!" Vada shrieked at her helpless parents. "Why is he even HERE? Why can't he be in Bermuda or Canada or somewhere other than HERE?!?!"

  Max shook her head, shooting a pitiful look at Alec.

  "I know the bastard does not deserve to stay here, but we need to make sure he doesn't screw up and expose us." Alec reasoned and Vada just crossed her arms and pouted.

  "He doesn't belong on this side of town. He needs to be with the Xs. The crazy ones should understand him better." Vada snapped.

  "Vada, go to your room." Max ordered.

  "But Maaaaax." Vada whined.

  "That was almost a sitcom moment." Alec muttered.

  "Almost?" Tristan asked. Alec glared.

  "Almost."

  Vada crossed her arms in the backseat of 'Baby'. Alec was driving her and Max to Logan's for a nice little visit.

  "Behave." Alec ordered.

  "Be nice." Max added.

  "That's pushing it." Vada muttered under her breath.

  "Be polite." Alec commanded. He looked into his rear-view mirror and Vada was pleading with him. "Be very polite."

  "Damn." Vada whispered. "Can I curl my hair while I'm there? I don't like doing it at Joshua's because I don't want to take up any extra power."

  "Fine." Max muttered. "As long as you behave."

  Vada smirked. 

  "And be nice."

  "Damn."

  "Hi, Logan. Bye, Logan." Vada breezed through the room, heading upstairs as if on autopilot.

  "What's with her?" Logan asked.

  "Wants to curl her hair." Alec explained plopping down on the couch. "Maxie, darling. Aren't you going to explain?"

  "I hate you." Max whispered.

  "The feeling is mutual." He hissed back.

  "Explain what?" Logan asked after a moment.

  "Maxie here had me lying to you. We never did anything. We're not even friends." Alec stopped, letting the words take effect. "She lied to you when she said something went on between us. I wouldn't do something like that."

  Vada looked up. Fire sprinklers?

  She shrugged. She supposed Logan couldn't just stop, drop and roll if he needed to get out because of a fire.

  She twisted up the top part of her hair. She hated her hair a lot.. She had so damn much of it. She took a chunk that she knew she didn't need, and the red-hot curling iron touched a new battle scar.

   "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" She shrieked, the chunk of hair detached in her hand and _on fire_. She threw it up in the air.

  "That HAD to hurt if she's screaming." Max whispered, and she and Alec sprinted up the stairs.

  The smoke alarm went off and the sprinklers were going crazy as Max entered.

  She immediately headed for the outlet, trying to unplug the curling iron.

  Vada turned to her mother and grabbed the still-sparking plug.

  Max and Vada shared an immediate electric shock. It took their transgenic blood to prevent them from screaming again.

  "My hair." A wet Vada whimpered, as she picked up the scorched chunk of hair.

  Logan and Alec came in, and Logan's hand brushed on Max's partially-bared back.

  "Oh, sorry, Max." Logan murmured, not realizing what was going on.

  Alec's eyes widened. "Logan, you touched Max's skin."

  Logan looked at his hands. He felt nothing.

  "I know what this means." Vada whispered.

  The three adults turned to her. 

  "What?" Max asked softly. "What, honey?"

  "The Virus, Mo--Max." Vada answered. "It's been cured."


	19. Vada Is Moved From Terminal City

A/N: Hey, now, don't you worry. The pairing hasn't been decided yet (So, don't freak out, Chris) and when it happens, I'll warn you. ;)

-Charity

   "Little fella's little fella.." Joshua called behind Vada, making her turn around. She smiled at him.

  "No one ever told you my name, did they?" She asked sweetly. He shook his head.

  "It's always, 'Not now, Joshua' or, 'You wouldn't understand, Joshua'." Joshua grinned, though. He seemed used to it. "The others have explained."

  "My name, Joshua, is Vada Marie. Vada Marie Whitman, according to my ID." She beamed at him, taking a sip of soda.

  "Do you think Logan and Max getting busy?" Joshua asked innocently.

  Vada choked down her gulp of soda. "I sure hope not."

  Joshua looked at her in confusion.

  "Exposure.." Vada whispered as an excuse. "Yeah! That's it! Exposure! It would be exposure! You saw Sam."

  "Oh." Joshua nodded.

  "Living in Terminal City sucks monkeys, Max." Vada pouted as she fell back onto the guestroom bed.

  "Well," Max began with a dreamy smile, "You can move in with us."

  Vada scowled slightly, but gave her mother a tight-lipped smile. "So, are you guys getting married?"

  Max kept smiling but didn't say anything.

  "And will we have little Bennets and Logans and Maxines running around here?" Vada continued, raising her eyebrows and picking at her nails.

  Max began laughing a bit as she moved another box of paints out of the closet. "Actually, you, OC, Alec, Joshua and Sketchy have the first naming rights. You would have the first name, and Logan and I would handle middle names."

  "What if you have a boy?" Vada, in spite of her problems with Logan, sat up eagerly. "I was thinking of naming him after Alec."

  Max laughed.

  "What? Alexander Zachary Cale. Sounds good to me." Vada grabbed her duffel bag and started unpacking.

  Max smiled. Alec Zack Cale.

  "And for the girl, I'm thinking.. Rachel Alexandria Cale. Rachel Cale. Alec Cale." Vada was getting carried away as she sorted her knickknacks on top of the white wicker dresser.

  "We'll worry about it when it happens." Max told her firmly, making Vada drop the subject.

  Max glanced at the dresser and saw that in the midst of the 'organized chaos', her little diamond dancer was dead center, frozen in mid-pirouette. She smiled.

  "Vada, I have to go to the Crash to meet up with OC. She'll kill me if I don't tell her in person." Vada's eyes were pleading. "You can't go."

  "You're no fun." Vada pouted.

  "Please, be nice." Max begged as she headed toward the master bedroom.

  Vada sent the doorway a dark look but decided that she'd have to talk to the guy eventually.

  "Hey, Logan." Vada murmured as she plopped down on the couch. "Whatcha doin'?"

  "Booking us all a nice family visit to the doctor's to see exactly how much of the Virus is in you." Logan answered, not looking up.

  "Oh." Vada whispered, picking at her fingernails again.

  "That's a disgusting habit, you know." Logan said from his position at the computer.

  Vada scowled. "How did you know that I was doing that?"

  "Joshua's tendency to be observant is in my blood, I guess." He replied coolly, and Vada found herself laughing.

  "Yeah, well, I have to have something imperfect about me." She found herself retorting. "I mean, with Alec being the king of cool and Max being the 'Chosen One', I don't have much room for junk DNA."

  Logan grinned and whirled around. "All done. Is there any particular reason why you came down from the Lair?"

  Vada smirked. Her room had gained that name when she had screamed that she'd shut herself up in it for a week as a protest for living there. But then she smelled spaghetti and came back down.

  "Well, for one thing, I'd like to apologize for my behavior the other night. It was raining, I was wet, the Oregon sunshine joke was told.. Yata, yata, yata.." Vada trailed off, not looking him in the eye. "Plus, I wanted to play on your computer."

  Max's voice interrupted her thoughts. _Remember, Logan's computer is NOT a toy._

  "Never mind. Mom told me not to.. Um. Right." Vada just looked around the room and began picking at her nails again. She looked up. "So are you going to ask Mom to marry you?"

  Logan grinned. "Would that be alright with you?"

  Vada shrugged. "I suppose. But I'll let you know now, I'm not exactly babysitter material. I don't like little kids. I've never liked little kids. Not even when I was one. I thought we were disgusting."

  Logan leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. "Max explained naming rights, right?"

  Vada smiled, nodding. "It's Alexander Zachary and Rachel Alexandria for the first two, and from that point on, it's Samantha Vada, and then Anthony Logan and then Marie Maxine, and then.."

  Logan began laughing hysterically. "You realize how many kids we'd have to have for you to name?"

  Vada's face fell a bit. "Well, the first two are Alexander Zachary and Rachel Alexandria. Rachel and Alec for short. Or Rachel and Zack."

  They sat in silence for a while.

  "So, when you guys get married, do I have to call you Dad? Or do I have to call you Logan? How about Logie? Or Logie-Bear, like a rip-off of Yogi-Bear. Or will I call you Pop-Pop or Papaw or.." Vada scowled. She hated having to think for more than a few minutes.

  "Why don't you go heat up some leftover spaghetti for us? There's some gloves in the kitchen just for you." Logan suggested and Vada smiled.

  "I'll stick with Logan, for now." 

  Vada headed for the kitchen, finding two pale-pink oven mitts trimmed with ruffled lace and covered with little ballerinas. She smirked and opened the refrigerator door.

  "Heeey, Logan." Alec drawled when Logan's face popped up.

  "Hey, Alec. Where's Max?" Logan sort of scowled.

  "She's at the Crash, Logie-Bear!" Vada called from the kitchen.

  Alec raised his eyebrows, not recognizing the female voice. "Logie-Bear? What, is Max not good for you anymore?"

  Vada bounced in with a plate in each hand. "Here you go, Logie-Bear. I'll get the forks and the Parmesan. And yes, I'm using the gloves. Disgustingly frilly things that they are. Oh, hi, Daddy. Logie-Bear won't let me play on his computer."

  Alec scowled at the sight of his daughter in oven mitts. "Hey, Princess. Remember.."

  "Logan's computer is NOT a toy. Mom—Max has already given me the lecture." Vada rolled her eyes. "You should come on down. The spaghetti is still left over."

  "Why don't you come down here, Princess?" Alec requested hopefully.

  "Mom—Max won't let me drive at night without the supervision of an X5, or Matt with the X7s." Vada whined. "Hey, I got to get the forks before this stuff gets cold."

  Alec watched her exit the screen. "Take care of her, Logan."

  Logan turned back to focus his eyes on the screen. He nodded solemnly.

  "She's the only family I've got left."


	20. A Turn For The Worst Begins A Past Towar...

  Max watched her daughter leave with Alec and shut the door softly.

  "Hey." Logan whispered, making her whirl around. 

  "Hey." Max replied casually, a soft smirk tugging at her lips.

  "We need to talk." He continued.

  "Why don't I heat up some of that amazing chili of yours?" Max asked with a sly grin.

  "Actually, I'll need your full attention." Logan pulled her into the living room. "I talked to Vada last night while you were out."

 Max shifted her weight uncomfortably.

 "She seems pretty ready for us to take the next step."

  Max nodded.

  "The question is, are you?"

  Max's head snapped up. She nodded with a growing smirk.

  "Is that your idea of a proposal?" She asked, her smirk evident. "Because it sucks."

  He grinned sheepishly. "I can't exactly get down on one knee."

  Max continued to smirk at him, rushing forward and sweeping him into a deep kiss.

  Two miles away, Vada shuddered.

  "Seeing as Joshua's blood and the electric transfusion were wearing down on the Virus as it is, the Virus is pretty weak. There is one element that seems to be stronger, however, and that is if Vada touches anything that Logan touches afterwards, the Virus will have an affect."

  Vada let out a strangled scream. "So even if my half-sister or brother is born, I can't touch them? Logan can't do my laundry if I'm out or clear the dishes or put his arm on the armrest I was previously using?"

  "Vada, behave." Max snapped.

  "No, Mom—Max." Vada protested firmly, standing up. "I may not be much of a kid person, but if I can't even take care of my little brothers and sisters or help around the house, I might as well live in Terminal City."

  "Vada, if you didn't want to live with us, you could have just said so." Max growled.

  Vada let out another strangled scream. "I _did_ say so! No one listens to me. All of a sudden my stuff is packed and I have to move to Terminal City and the instant I get used to it, I'm moved across town to live with my mother and her boyfriend that I didn't like!"

  She turned to face Logan. "Not that I don't like you now. That's why I'm arguing in the first place."

  "Vada, I think you better go back to Terminal City with Alec." Logan suggested.

  Max's eyes narrowed. "Logan!"

  "I'm going to get some air." Vada snapped, grabbing her purse and heading out.

  "Heeey, Matt." Vada slammed down onto a couch in the X Series headquarters in Terminal City.

  A few X6s turned around.

  "The Virus?" One of them asked, raising his eyebrows.

  "The one and only." Vada drawled and instantly they inched away from her.

  "I cannot believe you're afraid of her." A familiar voice sounded and Vada turned around.

  "Hey, Chris." Vada whispered.

  "She's nothing scary. Except for when she goes into heat. Very intimidating." Christian smirked and a few of the males (especially the ones with female X friends) chuckled.

  "I can't help it! It's in my DNA!" Vada protested in defense.

  The laughing continued.

  "The name is Vada. Vada Marie Whitman."

  "Damn right!" Somebody shouted.

  "DADDY!" Vada jumped up and ran towards the doorway. He raised a six-pack of her favorite drinks in the air triumphantly.

  "Heard you were down in the dumps." Alec proclaimed.

  Almost all of the Xs in the room stood to attention. 494 had been one of the most important Commanding Officers in all of Manticore. Even Matt, Tristan and Christian were fighting their instincts.

  "Oh, God, guys. It's just my dad." Vada muttered.

  "So what's up, Princess? You and Logan not getting along?" Alec suggested, trying to make sure there wasn't too much hope in his voice.

  "We can't even touch the same things. Not even my little brothers and sisters." Vada murmured gloomily.

  At this, Alec sat up. "Max is pregnant?"

  Murmurs went around the room.

  Vada scowled. "Hell no. It's just—I can't live in that house anymore. Matt, can you go get my stuff?"

  Matt nodded. "Anyone want to come with?"

  Alec stood up. "We'll take my car. We're brothers. Alexander Whitman and Matthew Whitman, got it?"

  Vada went to go sit back down on the worn couch. Christian slammed down next to her.

  "Hey, beautiful." Christian whispered into her ear, his breath soft and tickling.

  "Hey, yourself." Vada replied.

  "She in heat?" Some obnoxious girl asked.

  "No." They snapped simultaneously.

  "Good work, 510." Somebody muttered.

  "Shut up!" They cried in unison.

  "Real good work."

  "God, what a ruffly bedspread." Alec muttered as he and Matt stuffed as much of Vada's stuff into the boxes that they had.

  "Vada Marie Whitman, I am not done with you.." Max began, but she stopped short when she saw Alec and Matt with their arms full of boxes. "What are you two doing here?"

  "Easy. Vada is moving to Terminal City with me. She's our little ambassador for our furry friends." Matt drawled as Alec slid the boxes he had on top of Matt's own. 

  "I'm almost done, man. I'll catch up." Alec whispered.

  Matt nodded and brushed past Max.

  "I knew she was upset, but.." Max trailed off and she sat down on the bare bed glumly.

  "Max, don't worry about it. Moving Vada directly into a house with a relationship that isn't exactly labeled yet probably wasn't the best idea. Vada needs to be with X6s, just for closure." Alec explained. "Help me pack the rest of her stuff. I left a few clothes so we can pack the knickknacks right."

  Max stood up, tossing her leather handbag onto the bed.

  "I used to think I could do it all. Do I even want to have kids, now that I know I suck at being a mother?" Max asked as she picked up some of the little dancer figurines Vada had on top of her dresser.

  "Max, you're twenty-four years old. Let's face it, if you were meant to be a mother at this age, you'd have started puberty at six. You know how crazy that is?" Alec reminded her, gently wrapping the diamond dancer in a silk top of Vada's. They both reached for an empty crystal picture frame.

  "You know what, Alec?" Max murmured, getting inspired. "We should get some family photos. Just the three of us. Separate shots, mother/daughter shots, father/daughter shots, group shots.."

  "Mother/father shots?" Alec suggested with a smirk.

  "Maybe." Max chirped with an equally cocky smirk. She placed the crystal picture frame on top. "There."

  "Stop by, will you?" Alec asked with a sincere look of desire. "She needs you, you know?"

  Max escorted him to the landing. As she watched him walk out the door, she nodded. "Yeah, I know."

  "I need overalls." Vada whispered as she flipped to the next page of the Pulse-Mart catalog.

  "What, skintight leather catsuits not your thing?" Tristan snapped, rubbing off a dish at the sink.

  "Nah, ride up my ass." 

  "Overshare." Matt said, looking at her as if she was nuts. She punched him lightly on the arm.

  "You're welcome. I need overalls." Vada flipped another page. "And a polo."

  "You're welcome to steal some." Christian offered, looking up from cleaning Vada's bike.

  "Uh-uh, not good. Mom said something about ethics and exposure.. Bottom line, no stealing. She never said no stripping for cash, though she did hint at it." 

  "No stripping for cash, Vada." Everyone chorused, rolling their eyes.

  "Damn. How much are you going to bet that she didn't tell him?" Vada asked, her eyes still on the catalog.

  "Oh, Max would tell him." Matt protested defensively. "Why else would he be so quiet on the ride back?"

  "Willing to put some money on it?" Vada suggested, raising her eyebrows. 

  "Max has told him." Matt, Christian and Tristan chorused, each putting twenty dollars in her outstretched hand.

  "DADDY!!!" Vada shouted. "Come in here!!!"

  Alec strode in the room.

  "Did Max have any news to share?" Vada asked innocently.

  Matt, Christian and Tristan nonchalantly inched closer.

  "Nothing except that you've decided to stay in Terminal City, which I already knew. Look, I got to head over to Joshua's." Alec kissed her on the forehead. "Later, Princess."

  Vada smirked at everyone in the room. "Now I can have overalls AND a polo. Nothing unethical or exposing or sexual about it."

  "It kind of helps that she's your _mother_." Tristan drawled.

  "Doesn't mean I know the woman." Vada retorted. "Remember, we're _Manticore_. As in paranormal family values."

  "Why do you always have to remind me?" Tristan asked himself.

  "Because your skull is so thick." Christian muttered.

  This began a water fight to end all water fights. Vada was standing on the couch, shrieking in frustration, Christian and Tristan were tossing suds at each other, Ralph and Zero were ducking under a table, Bullet and Matt tried unsuccessfully to break up the fight, Fix-It was splashing water at Ralph and Zero, and Bugler was sitting on the table, screaming happily.

  "Kids." Someone muttered.

  "Honestly."


	21. Untitled

A/N: I have noticed that both pairings, M/L and M/A are very one-sided. They make the other guy a total villain, and neither of the guys are all that bad, no matter who you support. So keep reading to find out what goes on, because the pairing is a little shaky right now..

-Charity

P.S. Chris, I wouldn't read this if I were you.

  Max swept into Terminal City, anger and pain in every step.

  "Heeey, Max." Alec drawled as he past her.

  She spun around. Her hair whipped her in her face and Alec visibly cringed.

  "What's with you? Did you take an extra bowl of Bitch Flakes or something?" Alec snapped.

  "This is all your fault!" Max screamed. The nearby X Series froze.

  "What? What did I do?" Alec got out of the little nook he had been sitting in.

  "You brought her here, you found out her DNA and YOU made me feel bad for abandoning a daughter I never knew. Now I feel responsible!" Max screamed. "I _know_ she's the one who cured the Virus and made us friends, but still!"

  "You know, you have a conscience, too. You were the one who showed up on my doorstep!" Alec retorted. He was **not** going to take the blame for Max's self-inflicted melodrama. "What? You can't handle her? That's my girl."

  Max bit her lip. "No, I can't. I hate to admit, but you are a much better parent than I am. I mean, she calls _you_ Dad."

  Alec looked at her oddly. "She doesn't call you Mom to your face?"

  Max shook her head. "She starts to, but then she cuts herself off and calls me Max. Why?"

  "She calls you Mom all the time. Rolls off of her tongue like she's been saying it for years." Alec chuckled, looking off. His eyes met hers again. "Go talk to her."

  "How did you two meet, anyway?" Matt asked, raising his eyebrows. "Vada never told me."

  Max just laughed and kept going.

  "Two words, pal. Breeding. Partners." Alec whispered and Matt's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair. "And no, I didn't get any."

  "I guess you're here because you're still mad at me for walking out on you and Logan." Vada murmured after Max tapped her on the shoulder.

  "No, I'm upset because we haven't exactly found a comfort zone." Max slid onto the couch next to her. "There seems to be a lot you haven't told me."

  "Daddy doesn't know it either." Vada replied automatically.

  "Well, I _want_ to know, because I _was_ running. Your father wouldn't exactly understand, because he didn't grow up running away." Max began, but then she cut herself off. "So tell me. Where did you go after you broke out?"

  Vada grinned. "New York. I trained there in dance for a while, but after Manticore was torched, I needed to get out of such a news-oriented city. I moved to Hartford and made myself a foster child. I was taken in by the snooty Castellanos family and I put myself there on purpose. The prep school was the one where Tristan had put himself, and after my fourteenth birthday, we ran away together. They thought I was sixteen, so last year they stopped looking for me."

  Max smiled as it got darker and Vada continued with her story. Alec leaned on the doorway and watched his daughter and his unrequited crush. The three transgenics didn't know that each other were smiling so widely. They didn't know what would be their future. All they knew was that moment was warming them up from the inside out.

  "Logan, wonderful to see you again." Vada chirped falsely, and Max nudged her.

  "What do you want, Logie-Bear?" Alec drawled, his eyes full of a new hatred. A jealousy.

  "I need you guys to steal something for me." 

  "I knew you had an edge!" Vada exclaimed, but then Max nudged her again. "Sorry, Mom."

  Max would have been more upset if Vada hadn't called her the M word.

  "How much is in it for us?" Alec sneered. Vada and Max both shot him glares.

  "Nine grand." 

  "Nine grand sounds good." Vada whispered.

  "Three grand each." Max murmured.

  "Logie-Bear, I do realize that you are Max's boyfriend and all, but.. Why are you around so much?" Alec asked loudly.

  Vada grinned at her X6 friends, and Max looked at Alec, horrified.

  "Well, Alec, I thought Max or Vada would tell you, but Max and I are getting m--"

  It went downhill from there.

  Alec drove the SUV furiously, not speaking to Max, and barely acknowledging Vada.

  "How are you guys doing? You're so quiet." Logan's voice floated through the SUV. Alec looked at the speaker as if he was going to chuck it out the back window.

  "We're not very chatty tonight, Logan." Vada answered before Max or Alec could reply.

  "I've got the feed of all the cameras, so I'll be your backup. Matt's also your look-out." 

  Logan sat back and relaxed as he watched the four screens set up at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

  He watched the three of them spread out and toss things in the air. They had excellent chemistry. One of them would throw something, and another would pop out of nowhere to catch it, while the other was decoding something. Then they'd switch.

 He clicked his mouse several times, taking photos of them at work. They'd probably be the only photos of the transgenics outside of the government. 

  They gave Logan a thumbs-up as they left with three paintings.

  They were only supposed to get one.

   Logan moved into the passenger seat as Matt slammed the driver side door behind him. He drove off while Logan viewed screen shots.

  There was a particularly pretty one of Vada that he printed out. Max and Alec would love it. A shot of the three of them at work was also good. 

  But the one when Vada was working on the alarm coding for the cases, and Max was keeping look-out. Alec was staring at Max.

  Logan clicked on the zoom button.

  It was a look he was familiar with. A look he had had many times himself. The look of the unrequited crush. The look of the pain, the hurt, all of it mixed into one.

  Max was oblivious to it.

  Come to think of it, Logan had been, too.

  "What are you looking at?" Matt asked softly as they pulled into the alley behind the house.

  "Oh, just going over my reasoning, making sure I'm doing the right thing." Logan whispered as he printed out the photo.

  "Are you?" Matt inquired, pulling the keys out of the ignition.

  "Yeah." Logan murmured.

  "Here you are, the cash from the Norman Rockwell. You're getting a smaller share from the other two because, well, we swiped them, and her it is, five grand." Alec handed it over in wrinkled, folded bills.

  "That's nine grand for me, nine grand for you, and nine grand for Daddy." Vada chirped as she divided the remainder of the cash. "Dad's going to drive me home, okay?"

  Max nodded and Vada kissed her mother goodbye.

  "Bye, Max." Alec shouted over his shoulder. Logan caught his eye. "Logan."

 "That's another job well done." Matt muttered, pocketing his own two thousand dollars. "I'm going back to TC, too, Max."

  Max smiled confidently as she watched him go. "We make a wonderful team, the three of us."

  Logan nodded. "You guys did a great job. You should see the recaps."

  Max's eyes lit up. "Do you have them?"

  Logan shook his head. "I deleted the photos and the recaps, but I did print out the really good ones."

  Max eyed the stack of eight-by-tens nearby and grabbed them. "Oh, that's a pretty one. She's going to love it. And look at us!"

  "Zoom in on Alec's eyes." Logan said as she looked at the next picture.

  Max appraised his face. There was a look, oddly familiar and creepily comforting. It was loving, adoring, painful and hurt. The words she had heard and the photo she was seeing confirmed her worst fear. The fear that filled her with girly excitement.

  "What about it?" Max asked nonchalantly.

  "I know you see it. Anyone could." Logan observed, walking off. "Vada knows it, Matt knows it, and they all make bets about you. You protect him, too."

  Max looked up. Her worst fear was no longer the girlish one she had thought it to be. Her worst fear was happening. Logan knew.

  "I know you've just realized it. I can't stand here and say I'm going to marry you when I know that in the end, it will be Alec." Logan wasn't cold, he wasn't bitter, he was understanding. "Doesn't matter, anyways. You're happy, you don't hate me, and you didn't leave me for him like you made me think."

  Logan reached over and kissed her on the cheek. "Leave when you want, do what you want, and know that you have my blessing." 

   TBC


	22. The Space Needle

A/N: This is for you, Lany, for supporting the M/A idea when we both know Chris was begging for an M/L. And for anyone who was wondering when Vada was going to get on with her own love life, this is the chapter for you.

  Max stormed into Terminal City, her eyes combing the courtyard for her family. The sun was almost done setting in the distance and Max just felt crummy.

  "Alec! Vada!" She shouted in a shaking voice. "Come on."

  The two exchanged a glance, and they got up, following her.

  "Alec! Keys!" Max demanded, and Vada was amazed to see that he handed over the keys to 'Bitchy Baby' as she and Max put it.

  Christian winked at her, disappearing through a door. Vada rolled her eyes and followed her parents to the car.

  "You look like you're going to cry." Vada muttered from the backseat.

  "Are you?" Alec asked worriedly.

  "Nah." Max replied shakily. "It's no big deal."

  Vada's eyes narrowed, especially since they began to sweep over the backseat and its contents. Boxes. Boxes upon boxes. Boxes of Max's stuff.

  "What happened?" Vada whispered. "What is it, Mommy?"

  Max bit her lip and pulled into a parking spot in front of the Space Needle.

  "Logan and I have decided to call of the wedding." Max whispered finally. "It's for the better."

  Alec swallowed thickly. He _should_ be feeling good now.

  "It doesn't matter, anyways. I wanted to go up here, you know, for some family time." Max said decisively, unbuckling her seatbelt. "Come on."

  Alec and Vada exchanged a worried glance before following Max's example.

  "Logan said he just figured out something was there between your father and I.."

  "So he said he couldn't break up the best team he had seen in a while and that's how it happened." Max finished, grabbing a chip from the bag Vada had gotten.

  "Oh, Mommy." Vada murmured, resting her head on Max's shoulder. "That's horrible."

  "Yeah, Mommy." Alec drawled softly, putting his head on Max's other shoulder.

  "You really know how to ruin a moment, don't you?" Max demanded playfully, pushing him off.

  "That's my job- creating and ruining moments." Alec replied, putting his head back on Max's shoulder. "Hold me."

  Max couldn't help smiling.

  "You think I'm gorgeous.." Alec began in a sing-song voice, and Max's grin grew wider.

  "You want to kiss me.." Max added, mocking his tone. She turned to face him.

  "Hug me and marry me.." Alec finished, their faces only inches apart.

  "This is the last time I rent a pre-Pulse chick flick." Vada muttered. "Why don't you two just jump each other and get it over with?"

  She got up and went inside, disgusted.

  "You know, she has a point." Alec whispered, sitting upright.

  "About never renting pre-Pulse chick flicks again?" Max suggested.

  "About jumping each other." Alec corrected, moving closer. "Tonight's pretty cloudy, even for Seattle."

  "Stop talking about the weather." Max ordered quietly. "You know, we were made for each other."

  "Made to compliment each other's DNA.." Alec added, moving even closer. They were barely a centimeter apart.

  "Made to make perfect children." Max continued nervously. "Have the perfect family, be the perfect team, I mean, we even had a kid made for a test version. She's turned out great. I mean, how screwed up would our family be if we just.."

  "Max," Alec began. She turned to him, her eyes wide and prepared for an order. "Just shut up."

  "Make me." She snapped. He moved in even closer, cupping the sides of her face in his hands and just staring at her. "Well?"

  "You asked for it." He whispered, closing the final gap between them, planting his lips firmly on hers. He felt her arms snaking around his neck and she opened her mouth. He took that as an invitation to continue, so he did.

Vada's Point of View 

  Okay, so it's not much. It's actually kind of depressing, you know? My parents have just gotten their lives to that perfect formula and it took them three years. At least it's happened. They had a LUST. Code word for Lots of Unneeded Sexual Tension. Good, huh? I thought it was pretty creative myself.

  It _is_ really depressing that it took my parents twenty-four years to find that happy medium, especially being genetically enhanced. But of course, they're X5s. I swear, Manticore put a little self-destructiveness in their DNA. But of course, that's a common excuse. Blame Manticore and their DNA slicing lab. Without them, I wouldn't be here. If I wasn't here, who on earth would be able to pull of that wonderful matchmaking job I've done?

  I took a bite of that Choc-Caramel that Daddy bought me from the first floor vending machine. It's like a movie, except free.

  At least they know they're in a public place. I think that's the only thing keeping them from going at it like rabbits.

  Oh boy, that was a lot of LUST. I mean, a LOT.

  If it took them that long, how long is it going to take me? I mean, I haven't even fallen in love with a rich activist who's seven years older than I am. I'm way behind schedule. I mean, what if I'm completely unattached until I'm forty?

  I don't have that much time!

  Oh, God, Mom. You are such a slut.

  Note to other people, try to keep those two words away from each other, just for your sanity. My sanity would be a hundred times better if, oh, God. There they go.

  So much for the romantic aspect of it.

  Can they at least wait until they're married? I mean, how would they feel if _I_ was the one doing that? Huh?

  Oh, wait, they'd never find out. Heh, heh, heh.

  I'm feeling more and more pathetic as I watch my parents make out and more and more disgusted with myself for watching.

  But as a lot of girls in show business say, "You never like your own work as much as an outsider, no matter how brilliant it is."

  Oh, great. It's starting to rain. You'd think that would stop them. But, hell no! We're genetically enhanced soldiers! A **tornado** wouldn't stop us from making out with our perfect match.

  I decided to walk around the indoor portion of the Space Needle. After all, it _was_ getting kind of creepy just watching those two. I stood in front of a window, watching the raindrops drip down the window and admiring the view of the city. I can bet OC is out there clubbing, picking up any honey she can find acceptable underneath the club lights and the effects of alcohol. I bet Sketchy's trying to do the same.

  I can barely see Terminal City in the horizon, but I guess that's a good thing.

  Many have died in cold blood because of me, and it haunts me. But they had to die. For the good of fate and for the good of the country's security. Hell, they had to die for the good of Manticore's creations.

  Like Tony. He once told me to never stop dancing until it hurt me so much I broke. But nothing would hurt me that much. Nothing physical. Nope, not me. Not the Virus, not the perfect little girl.

  I guess I'm bitter. Who wouldn't be? Manticore forced my father to kill my clone, they murdered my surrogate mother before my eyes, and they separated me from the mother who never knew she had anyone else to take care of but herself. And they've practically destroyed the only love life I'll ever know.

  I don't know whether I would have married Tony if I had been old enough and.. Normal. I don't think I would have. But I loved him. There's no doubt about that.

  "Hey."

  The voice startled me. I tore my eyes away from the city and found Chris leaning against a vending machine.

  The transgenics in TC ask me how I can tell the difference between the two of them. Tristan and Christian, I mean. It's in the eyes. Chris's blue orbs have a sparkle in them, a curious sparkle that wants to learn everything about this world, and Tristan's own pair, well, don't.

  "Hey." I replied after a moment, turning back to the window.

  "I see Max and Alec finally came to their senses." He commented, moving so he could stand right next to me.

  "Took 'em long enough." I said simply, pushing a bit of hair behind my ear and letting my arm fall softly to my side. "They both seem to wade in denial."

  "Better than wading in blood." Chris muttered bitterly, glaring out at the city.

  "You can't blame them for hating us. They just don't understand that we didn't ask to be born. We just were." I whispered, leaning on him. My head rested on his shoulder. "They're afraid to compete with us, because we'll win."

  Chris shook his head. "It's not that. They started all the fighting and blame us for it."

  "They've been brainwashed by the government. You should have been in Seattle after Manticore was torched. That's why I went to New York." I explained, closing my eyes.

  "Let's not talk about this anymore tonight." Chris requested and I nodded, my face rubbing on the leather of his jacket. I opened my eyes and they were immediately looking at the inch between our hands.

  His hand found mine and intertwined our fingers. The pain that had been erupting in my stomach ceased and we just sort of stood there in silence, admiring Seattle and enjoying the freedom we were slowly getting.

**T**o **B**e **C**ontinued  


	23. And The Past Repeats Itself

  "Golden Boy, your daughter it threatening to torch the place again." Normal muttered as Alec pedaled in. 

  Alec leaned his bike on the wall and went over to the stairs. "VADA!"

  Vada appeared, flustered and frustrated. "The damn plugs upstairs won't work."

  Alec rolled his eyes. "I'll get Fix-It to come over."

  Vada smiled at her father and leaned over the banister to kiss his forehead. "I'll get my stuff out of her way."

  "Why are you such a good father?" A female voice asked huskily from behind him.

  "Comes with the job." Alec whispered, turning around to sweep Max into his arms. "I mean, kids happen to be very good chick magnets."

  Max's features darkened, and he grinned, bringing her up to kiss him. "But there's only one particular chick that I wanted."

  Max raised an eyebrow, now standing upright. "Wanted?"

  "And I want more and more of her every day." Alec kissed her once more. "Because she kicked my ass, I found the love of my life."

  "So, you finally admit I kicked your ass?" Max asked playfully, her arms casually circling his neck.

  "Only if you admit you found that ass dead sexy." Alec retorted.

  "Yeah, I wanted to die, alright." Max drawled.

  "Bip, bip, bip." Normal shouted and Alec and Max unhappily parted.

  "Call Fix-It." Alec whispered into her ear. "For some odd reason, those kids don't seem to like me."

  "Maybe because you acted like such an asshole back then." Max suggested in a low tone.

  "There you go with your fixation on my ass. I know I'm dead sexy, but honestly.." Alec drifted off and followed Max towards the payphones. He stood behind her, his arms around her waist and his head on her shoulder. "Hold me, Max."

  Max rolled her eyes playfully. "Why aren't you ever serious?"

  "Would you love me if I was?" Alec asked, the puppy dog look on his face.

  Max shook her head with a girlish smile. "I guess not. Hey, Josh, it's me. You're using the cell I gave you, right? Good. Tell someone to drive Fix-It down to Jam-Pony, but not Christian. Or Tristan. Get Matt to drive. The keys are in Vada's bedroom behind the picture of me and Alec. Yeah, he's with me. No, Josh, we're not.."

  Max was blushing. She hung up the phone and walked away with an embarrassed smile.

  "I'll have to thank Joshua for the suggestion." Alec whispered as he was tossed a package. "Bye, Maxie!"

  "I am done. Fix-It is a goddess, and I simply look like one." Vada announced from the top of the stairs. Max leaned back in her chair and smiled approvingly.

  Vada's normally wavy hair had been straightened and she pulled out a dress she had shown Max a month before. "This dress represents my freedom- when I ran away from the birthday party my foster parents threw for me."

  Dark pinkish red was a good color for her. Her daughter patiently walked down the rickety stairs as if she were a princess on a spiral staircase rather than a transgenic disguised as a mere teenager walking down the attic stairs.

  "Where's he taking you?" Max asked as she fixed the clasp on Vada's necklace. It relieved her to see no barcode on the back of her neck.

  "Dancing." The third thing she loved most in the world. About to be bumped down to fourth.

  "That ought to be wonderful." Max whispered. "Not an Alec-worthy date, but hey, not everyone can be your father."

  "Thank God." Vada muttered and Max smiled.

  "You're welcome, Vada." Alec appeared. "What have my two favorite girls been up to?"

  "Max has been saying that your dates are wonderful, Vada's going dancing with her date, and that's about it." Normal updated. Max glared at him.

  "Wonderful, huh?" Alec whispered, his arms slipping around her waist.

  "Get a room." Vada drawled, disgusted. "God, my parents are so weird."

  "Like you have any self-control." Matt said, not looking up from his magazine.

  "Shouldn't you be driving Fix-It back to TC?" Vada asked with a sickly sweet smile.

  "Self-control? My daughter has loads of it. Well, loads more than I've got." Alec said defensively.

  "Feline DNA, Alec. Sound familiar?" Matt looked up to see their reaction. Alec and Max were both blushing, not looking at each other, and Vada was glaring.

  "Go home, Matt."

  "Are you sure you know the steps?" Vada asked, one eyebrow cocked up innocently as they stood in front of the double doors of the ballroom at the Adolphis Hotel. She didn't look at him, but he knew she was teasing by the way she squeezed his hand.

  Christian handed over the tickets and gently put the stubs back into his pocket. "I'm promising you. I was your back-up on your New York mission."

  Christian looked up, hoping that empty feeling wasn't in Vada's eyes. Instead, she had a small smile on her face. 

  "It's a good thing you weren't. Otherwise I might be married to the richest man on Broadway." Vada kissed him softly on the cheek. "Shall we?"

  "Natalia, darling!" Vada froze, turning around slowly. On the whole, the night had been great. Christian hadn't lied, he was quite a good dancer.

  "Oh, hello." She whispered, giving her former co-star a half smile. "How long has it been, Jessie?"

  Jessie, a blonde creature with a frighteningly wide smile, hooked her arm into Vada's. "Almost five years, no? How old were you then, seventeen?"

  Christian laughed. She had been thirteen.

  Vada poked him in the stomach with her elbow and nodded. "What are you doing in Seattle, love?"

  Jessie giggled and flashed Vada a very large engagement ring. "My boyfriend, Johnny Fox, proposed and his family is here, so we decided to have the wedding. Are you on vaca?"

  Vada looked back at Christian, who found this whole ordeal highly amusing, and then nodded. "Jimmy and I just had to visit my father, who remarried."

  Jessie gave her an amused look of pity. "Oh, I hate when I have to do that.. Anyways, have you seen Tony's fiancée?"      

  Vada's eyes widened. "Tony's ali—getting married?"

  Jessie threw back her head and laughed. "Where _are_ you living, Natalia, dear?"

  "Cali." Christian answered smoothly. "Who's Tony, darling?"

  Jessie's eyes lit up with a scheme. "Tony's her ex, Jimmy. Her ex-boyfriend who was the star of the show. You do know she was a Broadway chorus girl, right?"

  Christian nodded from behind Vada, sliding his arms around her waist and propping his chin up on her shoulder.

  "Anyways, he can't sing anymore because of the explosion—he got shot in the diaphragm, you know. People thought he was dead and you plain just disappeared.." Jessie eyed her as if expecting her to explain her disappearance.

  "Oh, well, we all thought Tony was dead until the news of his, er, mortality reached us. Daddy moved us to Seattle and never took us back.. Too traumatic, he said." Vada explained away. Her voice began cracking. "So, who's the lucky girl?"

  Jessie giggled evilly. "Hardly lucky. The marriage is arranged by his uncle and while she loves him, he still loves.."

  Jessie winked and Vada grimaced.

  "Are you alright, Natalia?" Jessie asked in a somewhat concerned tone. "Oh, there's Johnny! Will you be in town in a week?"

  Vada shook her head, the sick look still on her face. 

  "Oh, that's too bad. I'll send you pictures then." Jessie waved goodbye and Christian led Vada over to a chair.

   "You alright?" Christian whispered and Vada shook her head.

   "Christian, I loved that guy." She said after a moment. "I thought I had killed him. And now, he's getting.. Married."

  Christian brought his hand up to cup Vada's chin gently, turning her head to face him. "If he really wanted to find you, he would have. You're over him, right?"

  Vada gave him a half-smile. "I will be."

  Christian kissed her softly. "Let's go home."

  Jessie watched her former co-star leave with that boyfriend of hers and decided that what she was about to do was right. She pulled an eyeliner pencil out of her handbag, and picked up the phone from its cradle. She dialed the familiar numbed with the eyeliner pencil and waited patiently for someone to pick up on the other end.

  He picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"

  "Tony, this is Jessie. You will never believe who I just ran into at the Adolphis in Seattle."  


End file.
